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THE  NATURE-STUDY  IDEA 


The  Rural  Outlook  Set 

The  Outlook  to  Nature  (revised) 
The  Nature-Study  Idea 
The  State  and  the  Farmer 
The  Country-Life  Movement 


The  Nature-Study  Idea 

AN    INTERPRETATION     OF    THE    NEW 

SCHOOL-MOVEMENT    TO    PUT     THE 

YOUNG    INTO     RELATION    AND 

SYMPATHY   WITH    NATURE 


BY 
L.  H.  Bailey 


FOURTH  EDITION,  REVISED 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1911 


Lft 


1 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 
BY  DOUBLED  AY,  PAGE^&  CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1909 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October ,  1909 
Reprinted  October,  1911 


Printed  .t 

The  NORWOOD  PRESS 
Berwick  &  Smith  Company,  Norwood,  Massachusetts 


TO 


A  TEACHER  WHO  ALLOWED 
A   BOY  TO  GROW 

3  inscribe  t&(0  booft 


260044 


Contents 

PART  I 

NATURE- STUDY  TEACHING 

PAGE 

I.     What   Is    Nature-Study? 3 

II.    Who  First  Used  the  Terra  Nature-Study? 16 

III.  The  Meaning  of  the  Nature-Study  Movement. ...  27 

What    nature-study    is    not 29 

The  outlook  by  fact  and  by  fancy 35 

How  nature-study  may  be  taught 37 

What  may  be  the  results  of  nature-study? 50 

IV.  The   Integument-Man 58 

V.  Nature-Study    with    Plants 67 

Suggestions   for   plant  work 70 

VI.    The  Growing  of  Plants  by  Children— The  School- 
Garden 78 

Improving  of  the   school-grounds 84 

The    school-garden    87 

The   larger   relations    90 

VII.     Nature-Study    Agriculture 93 

A  point  of  view  on  the  rural-school  problem...  96 

The   prospect    105 

PART  II 

THE  TEACHER'S  OUTLOOK  TO  NATURE 

PAGE 

I.    The  Teacher's  Interpretation  of  Nature 113 

II.     Science    for    Science's   Sake 117 

III.     Extrinsic   and  Intrinsic  Views  of   Nature 124 

IV.     Must  a  "Use"  be  Found  for  Everything? 131 

V.     The   New    Hunting 139 

VI.  The  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature 151 

VII.     An   Outlook   on  Winter , ...  161 

vn 


viii  Contents 

PART  III 

INQUIRIES  AND  ANSWERS 

PAGE 

How  Shall  I  Know  What  Subjects  to  Choose? 171 

But  If  the  Child  Choose  the  Material,  the  Subject  Will 

Lack  Continuity:  What  Then? 173 

Then  Would  You  Give  No  Heed  to  Continuity? 173 

Should     Nature-Study     Give     Way     to     "Fundamental" 

Work?    174 

What     is     the     Proper     Pedagogical     Starting-Point     for 

Nature-Study  ?    178 

How  Shall  I  Make  a  Start? 181 

How   May  I    Secure    Permission   from    My   Principal   to 

Teach    Nature-Study ?    183 

Would  You  Teach  Heat,  Light  and  Physics  as  Nature- 
Study  Topics  ?    185 

Would  You  Teach  "Practical"  and  "Useful"  Things?..   185 
Would  You   Teach   Objects  that  the   Child   Cannot   See 

and  Determine   for  Itself? 188 

How  Much  Apparatus  Do  I  Need  ? 188 

Is  It  "Thorough"? 189 

But  Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Be  Called  Superficial?  191 
Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Tend  Still  Further  to  Over- 
burden   the    School  ? 192 

Shall  We  Teach  the  Child   to  Collect,   and  Thereby  to 

Kill?  194 

How    May   We    Develop    a    Humane    Attitude    Toward 

Living    Things  ? 195 

Would  You  Tell  the  Child  the  Names  of  the  Things?..  196 
Would  You  Begin  by  First  Reading  to  the  Child  About 

Nature  ?    197 

Now  That  There  Are  So  Many  Nature-Books,  How  Shall 

I  Choose  the  Most  Useful   One? 198 

How  Shall  I  Acquire  Sufficient  Knowledge  to  Enable  Me 

to  Teach  Nature-Study? 199 


Contents  ix 

PAGE 

Is  It  Best  to  Have  a  Professional  Nature-Study  Teacher 

to  Go  from  School  to  School  ? 201 

Should  Not  Nature-Study  Be  In  All  the  Grades  for  All 
P.upils,  and  Technical  Work  Be  Left  to  the  High- 
School  ? 202 

Should  the  Parts  of  a  School-Garden  Be  Apportioned  to 

Pupils,  or  Should  the  Work  Be  Done  in  Common?  205 

Can  I  Make  a  Nature-Study  Exhibition  Useful  as  Part 

of  an  Exposition? 212 

Why  Should  This  Nature-Study  Be  Confined  to  the 

Schools  ?  213 

What  Shall  We  Do  with  the  Children  in  the  Summer 

Vacation?  215 

Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Work  Interfere  with  School 

Discipline  ?  217 

Shall  I  Correlate  the  Nature-Study  Work  with  Other 

Work?  218 

What  Can  I  Do  to  Put  Our  Rural  Schools  In  Touch  with 

Their  Constituency?  225 

How  Can  I  Reach  the  Farmers  of  My  Neighborhood?..   235 

How  Can  a  Teacher  Prepare  Himself  to  Teach  Agricul- 
ture in  the  Special  Schools  That  Are  Now  Being 
Established?  240 

How  Can  I  Do  Any  Nature-Study  Work  in  the  Ordinary 

Kind  of  Schoolroom  ? 241 

Is  Nature-Study  on  the  Wane? 244 

Would  You  Advise  Me  to  Take  Up  Nature-Study  Teach- 
ing?   245 


PART  I 

Being   an   attempt  to  define  and  explain 
what  nature-study  is 


I 

What  is  Nature-Study? 

A  CONTRIBUTOR  to  a  recent  issue  of  a 
leading  technical  journal  has  endeavored 
to  find  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question, 
"What  is  nature-study?"  by  appealing  to  "emi- 
nent scientific  men."  The  answers  of  these 
men  are  printed  there  in  full. 

Now,  the  nature-study  movement  is  not  a 
product  of  "eminent  scientific  men,"  nor  directly 
of  the  current  natural-science  movement.  It  is 
a  product  of  the  common  schools.  Eminent 
scientific  attainment,  as  such,  is  not  to  be 
expected  to  enable  persons  to  give  satisfactory 
answer  to  the  question,  for  the  subject  is  not 
within  its  realm.  Happily,  many  scientific  men 
are  also  closely  in  touch  with  elementary  edu- 
cation, and  therefore  are  fully  competent  to 
discuss  the  nature-study  movement,  but  it  is 

3 


4  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

this  very  touch  with  the  common  schools,  not 
their  eminent  scientific  achievements,  that  gives 
them  this  competency;  and  some  of  the  answers 
referred  to  above  are  good  definitions  from  the 
child-teacher's  point  of  view. 

To  be  sure,  the  term  nature-study  etymologi- 
cally  implies  only  the  study  of  nature;  and 
"nature"  is  conventionally  understood  to  mean 
the  world  of  outdoor  objects  and  phenomena. 
But  all  words  and  terms  mean  less  or  more 
than  their  mere  etymology  would  imply,  and 
this  meaning  is  determined  by  usage.  So  usage 
has  determined  a  definite  office  for  the  name 
nature-study:  it  designates  the  movement  origi- 
nating in  the  common  schools  to  open  the~ 
pupil's  mind  by  direct  observation  to  a  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  the  common  things  and 
experiences  in  the  child's  life  and  environment. 
It  is  a  pedagogical  term,  not  a  scientific  term. 

Nature-study  is  not  synonymous  with  the  old 
term  "natural  history,"  nor  with  "biology,"  nor 
with  "elementary  science."  It  is  not  "popular 
science."  It  is  not  the  study  of  nature  merely. 
Nature  may  be  studied  with  either  of  two 


What  is  Nature-Study?  5 

objects:  to  discover  new  truth  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  the  sum  of  human  knowledge;  or 
to  put  the  pupil  in  a  sympathetic  attitude  toward 
nature  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  his  joy  of 
living.  The  first  object,  whether  pursued  in  a 
technical  or  elementary  way,  is  a  science-teach- 
ing movement,  and  its  professed  purpose  is  to 
make  investigators  and  specialists.  The  second 
object  is  a  nature-study  movement,  and  its  pur- 
pose is  to  enable  every  person  to  live  a  richer 
life,  whatever  his  business  or  profession  may  be. 
Nature-study  is  a  revolt  from  the  teaching  of 
formal  science  in  the  elementary  grades.  In 
teaching-practice,  the  work  and  the  methods  of 
the  two  intergrade,  to  be  sure,  and  as  the  high- 
school  and  college  are  approached,  nature-study 
passes  into  science-teaching,  or  gives  way  to  it; 
but  the  intentions  or  mgtfto  are  distinct — they 
should  be  contrasted  |  K  than  compared. 
The  nature-study  methocMRi  fundamental  and, 
therefore,  a  general  educational  process;  the 
formal  science-teaching  method  is  adapted  to 
mature  persons  and  to  those  who  would  know  a 
particular  science. 


6  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Nature-study,  then,  is  not  science.  It  is  not 
knowledge.  It  is  not  facts.  It  is  spirit.  It  is 
an  attitude  of  mind.  It  concerns  itself  with  the 

*^ •* ** ™ ^•**™^P»<^*»*  ^BWMW^M • «^ **«^* •^f 

child's  outlook  on  the  world. 

Nature-study  will  endure,  because  it  is  natural 
and  of  universal  application.  Methods  will 
change  and  will  fall  into  disrepute;  its  name 
will  be  dropped  from  courses  of  study;  here  and 
there  it  will  be  incased  in  the  schoolmaster's 
"method"  and  its  life  will  be  smothered;  now 
and  then  it  will  be  over-exploited;  with  some 
persons  it  will  be  a  fad :  but  the  spirit  will  live. 

So  common  is  the  misconception  of  the  mean- 
ing and  mission  of  the  nature-study  movement, 
that  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  bring 
together  in  book  form  a  few  notes  and  essays  on 
some  of  the  more  salient  features  of  it,  even  if 
the  resulting  book  lack  somewhat  in  homogeneity 
and  have  some  repetitions.  These  pieces  have 
been  written  at  intervals  in  the  past  six  years. 
Most  of  them  were  prepared  for  specific  occa- 
sions, for  the  purpose  of  discussing  disputed 
points  or  of  answering  challenges;  some  have 
been  written  specially  for  this  collection.  Some 


What  is  Nature-Study?  7 

of  them  have  been  published.  They  are  offered 
in  all  humbleness,  since  every  person's  view  is 
necessarily  colored  by  his  own  field  of  work; 
but  on  the  main  thesis — that  nature-study  teach- 
ing is  one  thing  and  that  science-teaching  for 
science's  sake  is  another — I  have  no  hesitation. 

The  foregoing  paragraph  indicates  the  make- 
up of  the  original  edition  of  this  book,  which 
was  published  by  Doubleday,  Page  &  Cof  in 
1903.  The  book  appears  to  have  found  a  con- 
stituency beyond  my  expectations,  and  the 
continued  use  of  it  influences  me  now  (1909)  to 
make  a  new  edition.  If  I  were  writing  the  book 
anew  at  this  time,  I  might  put  it  in  different 
phrase ;  but  as  it  was  written  when  I  was  actually 
engaged  in  teaching  and  was  filled  with  the 
practical  details  of  the  subject,  and  as  so  many 
parts  of  it  have  been  so  often  quoted,  I  shall 
leave  it  much  as  it  was  originally  prepared. 
Since  the  book  was  written,  I  have  ceased  all 
teaching  and  have  been  consumed  in  educational 
administrative  work.  I  have  therefore  seen 
the  subject  from  a  different  angle;  but  on  going 
over  the  text  I  find  nothing  that  I  would  change 


8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

in  the  fundamental  contentions.  In  fact,  I  have 
a  deeper  conviction  than  ever  that  the  method 
and  point  of  view  of  the  nature-study  people 
are  bound  to  exercise  great  influence  in  redirect- 
ing our  education. 

I  have  a  growing  feeling  that  the  nature-study 
method  is  not  only  a  public-school  process,  but 
that  it  is  equally  needed  in  colleges  and  universi- 
ties for  all  unspecialized  students.  The  process 
applies,  in  fact,  from  kindergarten  to  college. 
From  long  experience  I  am  convinced  that  much 
of  our  college  physics,  botany,  zoology  and 
chemistry  is  very  poorly  taught  if  we  are  to  con- 
sider its  effect  on  the  student;  and  this  effect  is, 
of  course,  the  end  of  teaching.  A  student  may 
take  college  physics  and  yet  have  little  concep- 
tion of  the  common  physical  phenomena  of  life. 
He  may  study  physiology  and  gain  little  real 
understanding  of  his  bodily  functions  or  of 
e very-day  sanitation.  These  subjects  are  likely 
to  be  taught  with  the  special  student  in  mind 
rather  than  the  general  student.  The  teacher  is 
disposed  to  think  of  the  necessity  of  developing  a 
whole  subject  rather  than  to  give  the  student  a 


What  is  Nature-Study?  9 

rational  and  vivid  conception  of  the  material  as 
it  relates  to  him.  I  have  been  interested  all  my 
life  in  plants ;  but  I  should  not  care  to  have  one 
of  my  pupils  devote  four  or  five  periods  a  week 
for  a  whole  freshman  year  to  the  study  of 
botany  unless  he  were  specially  interested  in 
botany.  Much  of  the  beginning  teaching  in  the 
sciences  in  colleges  and  universities  is  undoubt- 
edly very  bad.  It  is  no  doubt  accurate,  and  it 
may  also  be  adapted  to  the  few  students  who 
desire  to  specialize  in  the  subject;  but  such 
students  should  be  taken  further  in  courses 
designed  for  them.  Condensed  general  courses 
that  give  the  college  student  a  rational  view  of 
the  subject,  without  many  details  and  exceptions, 
are  very  much  to  be  desired;  and  such  courses 
should  attempt  to  relate  the  student  to  his  own 
experience  in  life. 

We  have  been  passing  through  a  long  epoch 
of  speech-education.  This  no  doubt  is  largely 
the  outcome  of  the  results  of  the  Reformation, 
to  teach  persons  to  read  their  own  scripture. 
The  schools  must  undergo  a  continual  process 
of  growth  and  adaptation  if  they  are  to  meet  the 


io  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

needs  of  the  passing  generations  of  men.  We 
now  feel  that  speech-education  is  not  a  primary 
educational  process,  but  that  real  education 
should  grow  out  of  or  result  from  the  common 
activities  of  the  child.  Some  day  we  shall  set 
all  our  children  at  work  when  they  go  to  school 
and  make  them  to  be  effective  men  and  women 
in  the  common  work  of  men  and  women. 

After  all  these  years  of  nature-study  enter- 
prise, it  is  naturally  assumed  by  many  persons 
that  we  ought  to  be  able  to  give  statistics  of  the 
number  of  pupils  who  are  enrolled  in  the  sub- 
ject, the  number  of  teachers  that  are  teaching  it, 
the  number  of  books  that  have  been  read,  and 
other  exact  figures.  This  supposition  misses 
the  very  purpose  of  the  nature-study  movement, 
which  is  to  set  pupils  at  work  informally  and 
personally  with  the  objects,  the  affairs  and  phe- 
nomena with  which  they  are  in  daily  contact. 
There  are  very  many  teachers  and  very  many 
schools,  and  very  many  pupils,  who  have  a  new 
outlook  on  life  as  the  result,  of  nature-study 
work;  but  if  I  could  give  a  statistical  measure  of 
the  nature-study  movement,  I  should  consider 


What  is  Nature-Study?  n 

the  work  to  have  been  a  failure,  however  large 
the  figures  might  be. 

The  seed  has  been  planted,  and  it  has  germi- 
nated. The  evolution  of  a  new  intention  in 
education  is  under  way  and  is  beginning  to  be 
felt.  The  principles  have  been  stated;  the  cur- 
rent discussions  are  of  methods,  difficulties,  and 
of  local  and  personal  adaptations. 

We  are  to  open  the  child's  mind  to  his  natural 
existence,  develop  his  sense  of  responsibility  and 
of  self-dependence,  train  him  to  respect  the 
resources  of  the  earth,  teach  him  the  obligations 
of  citizenship,  interest  him  sympathetically  in 
the  occupations  of  men,  quicken  his  relations  to 
human  life  in  general,  and  touch  his  imagination 
with  the  spiritual  forces  of  the  world. 

If  life  is  worth  living  it  must  be  invigorated, 
and  there  is  no  invigoration  without  enthusiasm 
and  spirit.  We  must  all  have  practice  in  the 
common  affairs  of  life;  but  practice  alone  is 
dead,  and  worse  than  dead.  If  we  cannot  add 
the  spirit  and  the  true  sentiment  to  life,  then 
there  is  no  interest  in  living  excepting  for  that 
which  is  gross.  It  is  better  to  have  a  thread  of 


12  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

inspiring  philosophy  running  through  the  day's 
work  than  to  have  a  very  large  bank  account. 
This  means  that  a  school  should  have  a  soul. 

The  reader  will  understand  that  I  have  ap- 
proached my  subject  from  the  side  of  fact  and 
of  experience,  not  from  the  side  of  pedagogical 
theory  or  of  the  psychology  of  education.  Na- 
ture-study is  experience-teaching.  In  my  first 
work  and  writing  on  nature-study,  I  think  that  I 
was  wholly  unconscious  of  any  conflict  of  my 
views  with  the  current  theories  of  educational 
procedure;  in  fact,  the  pedagogical  theories 
were  unknown  to  me  till  they  were  called  to  my 
attention.  I  had  merely  set  forth  my  convic- 
tions, resulting  from  many  years  of  teaching,  to 
the  effect  that  the  best  way  to  teach  nature  sub- 
yjects  is  to  begin  with  good  simple  observation 
rather  than  with  dissection,  classification  theo- 
rizing or  memorizing.  I  think  that  the  same 
process  should  be  followed  in  the  training  of 
the  teacher  himself.  I  doubt  whether  saturation 
in  the  psychology  of  pedagogy  affords  a  good 
start  for  the  training  of  a  teacher.  I  observe  an 


What  is  Nature-Study?  13 

indefiniteness  and  haziness  of  ideas  in  persons 
who  have  their  theory  before  they  have  their 
facts.  They  do  not  have  their  feet  on  the 
ground.  They  do  not  drive  stakes;  or  if  they 
do,  they  ponder  the  method  until  the  operation 
becomes  lifeless.  For  nature  subjects,  the  first 
essential  is  an  intense  love  of  nature;  the  best 
training  is  to  acquire  the  actual  facts  and  to 
know  the  subject,  and  then  to  go  out  and  teach, 
without  too  much  burden  of  doubt  as  to 
the  kind  and  propriety  of  the  theoretical 
methods.  I  do  not  doubt  the  value  of  the 
psychological  study  of  education,  and  all  teach- 
ers should  profit  by  a  discussion  of  educational 
history  and  method;  but  we  should  be  careful 
not  to  fill  the  young  teacher  full  of  ab- 
stractions. A  teacher  may  safely  theorize 
and  speculate  after  he  has  learned  how  to  teach. 
Of  the  criticisms  on  this  book  and  on  my  gen- 
eral attitude  toward  nature-study  teaching,  the 
most  important  is  that  I  insist  too  much  on  spon- 
taneousness  and  informality  and  thereby  provide 
an  excuse  for  lazy  or  indifferent  teachers  who 


14  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

do  not  want  to  make  preparation  for  their  les- 
sons. The  lazy  teacher  can  find  plenty  of 
excuses.  One  who  fairly  reads  the  book  need 
not  be  misled.  My  general  plea  is  a  challenge 
to  existing  hard-and-fast  methods  and  to  those 
ways  of  teaching  that  take  the  pupil  prematurely 
beyond  his  depth.  There  is  no  danger  tha 
the  school  work  will  lack  in  formality:  our  sys- 
tems encourage  formality,  and  the  desire  to 
standardize  all  methods  seems  to  be  extending, 
but  a  free  and  natural  procedure  needs  always 
to  be  promoted  and  defended.  In  actual  school 
practice,  it  is  of  course  necessary  that  a  system 
be  followed  and  that  the  teacher  have  ability 
enough  and  knowledge  enough  to  be  able  to 
teach.  I  have  not  cared  to  prepare  an  outline 
for  class  work:  the  book  is  concerned  with  the 
nature-study  idea.  Nor  have  I  desired  to  make 
supplemental  statements  in  these  intervening 
years,  for  I  have  wanted  the  idea  to  sink  in. 

The  recent  years  have  been  a  time  of  wide- 
spread discussion  of  all  phases  of  education  for 
the  people,  and  the  nature-study  idea  has  re- 
ceived its  full  share  of  attention.  Whatever 


What  is  Nature-Study?  15 

may  be  the  opinion  of  individual  teachers  and 
writers  on  the  nature-study  movement,  it  is  a 
fact  that  our  educational  methods  are  re-shaping 
themselves  in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  the  pupil 
to  develop  a  sympathetic  and  vital  contact  with 
his  usual  environment;  and  the  stiff,  dead  and 
gainfully  exact  teaching  of  rule  and  fact  to  the 
young  is  rapidly  giving  way  to  a  free,  spirited 
and  natural  way  of  teaching.  We  can  even 
now  begin  to  see  the  result  in  a  less  restrained 
and  more  wholesome  outlook  on  life  in  the 
young  generation.  It  will  be  much  satisfaction 
to  me  if  I  can  feel  at  the  end  that  this  frag- 
mentary book  has  had  some  effect  in  heartening 
teachers  not  to  be  afraid  to  teach. 


II 

Who  First  Used  the  Term  Nature-Study? 

A  BRIEF  history  of  the  origin  of  the  con- 
temporary nature-study  movement  will 
clarify  our  ideas  as  to  its  spirit  and  purpose.  I 
am  aware  that  the  history  that  follows  is  incom- 
plete, and  that  persons  who  were  connected  with 
the  beginnings  of  it  are  not  mentioned;  but  I 
think  that  the  account  will  be  useful  in  giving 
us  perspective,  and  in  establishing  an  approxi- 
mate date  for  the  first  use  of  the  term. 

I  have  engaged  in  a  large  correspondence  for 
the  purpose  of  discovering  something  of  the 
history  of  the  nature-study  movement  in  North 
America.  Oftenest,  perhaps,  I  have  been  re- 
ferred to  the  teaching  of  Agassiz  at  Penikese  as 
the  beginning,  at  least  in  this  country.  Agassiz, 
however,  did  not  teach  nature-study  in  the 
school  sense  in  which  we  use  the  term,  although 
he  gave  us  the  motto,  "Study  nature,  not  books." 
He  taught  the  study  of  nature  by  the  "natural 
method."  His  instruction  was  given  from  the 

16 


Who  First  Used  the  Term?        '17 

investigator's  or  the  specialist's  viewpoint,  and 
it  was  intended  primarily  for  students  and 
adults. 

The  present  nature-study  movement,  as  I 
have  said,  is  a  product  of  the  elementary 
schools,  not  of  universities,  although  many 
university  and  college  men  have  been  instru- 
mental in  forwarding  it.  Cornell  was  perhaps 
the  first  university  to  take  it  up  as  a  distinct 
enterprise  (1895),  but  the  movement  was 
already  well  under  way  in  many  places  at  that 
time.  At  this  institution  it  became  an  extension- 
teaching  movement.  Professor  C.  F.  Hodge 
of  Clark  University,  under  the  inspiration  of 
Stanley  Hall,  began  popular  work  in  nature- 
study  in  1897.  The  Cornell  work  is  not  so 
much  a  school  enterprise  as  a  movement  to  make 
use  of  the  schools  to  reach  the  people  on  the 
farms.  This  work,  more  than  any  other  per- 
haps, has  emphasized  the  nature-sympathy  and 
the  nature-relations. 

The  beginnings  of  nature-teaching  are  cer- 
tainly as  old  as  the  time  of  Socrates  and  Aris- 
totle. It  is  concretely  expressed  in  the  work 


i8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

of  the  great  educational  reformers — Comenius, 
Pestalozzi,  Jean  J.  Rousseau,  Froebel  and 
the  others.  In  a  large  measure,  the  spirit  of 
our  present-day  nature-study  movement — which 
seems  so  new  to  us — is  a  recrudescence.  Just 
now  it  represents  a  reaction  from  the  dry-as- 
dust  science-teaching. 

What  we  may  legitimately  call  nature-study, 
in  the  current  acceptation  of  the  term,  began  to 
take  form  in  this  country  from  1884  to  1890. 
Who  first  used  the  term  I  do  not  know;  and  it 
is  of  small  consequence,  because  the  term  may 
mean  much  or  nothing.  The  term  appears  to 
have  been  at  first  a  substitute  for  "object  les- 
sons," "plant  work,"  "elementary  science,"  and 
the  like.  Dr.  Piez,  of  the  Oswego  (N.  Y.) 
Normal  School,  makes  the  following  comment 
on  the  pedagogical  origin  of  the  nature-study 
idea:  "I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
nature-study  in  spirit,  if  not  in  name,  is  the 
direct  descendant  of  object  teaching.  Object 
teaching  aimed  at  the  use  of  the  senses  in  acquir- 
ing knowledge,  and  was  introduced  to  displace 
the  mechanical  'memory'  method  current  in  the 


Who  First  Used  the  Term?         19 

schools.  It  was  responsible  for  raising  the  prob- 
lem of  method  among  thoughtful  teachers.  But 
the  'lessons  on  objects'  were  justly  deserving  the 
criticism  that  they  were  disconnected,  and  that 
the  knowledge  resulting  from  them  was  a  knowl- 
edge of  isolated  facts  not  organized  into  a  com- 
prehensive whole." 

Although  the  teaching  of  Agassiz  may  not 
have  been  nature-study,  as  we  understand  the 
term,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  present 
nature-study  movement  is  a  proximate  result  of 
the  forces  that  he  and  his  contemporaries  set  in 
motion.  A  strong  application  of  this  influence 
to  school  life  was  made  in  Boston  by  Alpheus 
Hyatt  and  Lucretia  Crocker.  In  various  places, 
others  of  Agassiz's  followers  carried  his  spirit 
into  the  schools.  One  of  the  most  powerful 
early  adaptations  of  his  teaching  to  the  common- 
school  work  was  made  at  the  State  Normal 
School  at  Oswego,  N.  Y.  There  was  a  strong 
Pestalozzian  influence  in  this  institution,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  late  Dr.  Sheldon.  Pro- 
fessor H.  H.  Straight  went  to  Oswego  in  1876. 
He  had  come  under  the  influence  of  Agassiz  and 


20  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Shaler.  He  was  a  student  of  science,  but  his 
views  of  science-teaching  in  the  elementary 
school  underwent  gradual  but  decided  change 
under  the  Pestalozzian  influence  in  which  he  was 
placed.  He  saw  the  insufficiency  of  "object 
teaching"  as  an  educational  process.  The  de- 
fects he  sought  to  overcome  by  "correlation  of 
the  subjects  of  study."  As  director  of  the 
practice  school,  he  worked  out  his  ideas  of  cor- 
relation in  "nature"  subjects  and  geography 
subjects.  His  work  included  the  study  of  the 
common  things  in  the  neighborhood.  In  1883 
Professor  Straight  went  to  the  Cook  County 
(111.)  Normal  School  and  taught  there  until 
his  death,  in  1886.  He  had  great  influence  in 
developing  the  ideals  of  this  institution,  and 
was  given  credit  therefor  by  Colonel  Parker, 
the  distinguished  head  of  the  school.  So  far  as 
I  know,  however,  Professor  Straight  did  not 
use  the  term  "nature-study." 

The  introduction  of  elementary  science  as  an 
organic  part  of  school  work,  ranking  with  arith- 
metic and  grammar,  was  made  in  the  Cook 
County  (111.)  Normal  School  as  early  as  1889, 


Who  First  Used  the  Term?         21 

under  the  presidency  of  Francis  W.  Parker. 
This  introduction  was  made  by  the  late  Wilbur 
S.  Jackman,  whose  teaching  and  writing  in 
nature-study  lines  are  well  known.  In  1884 
Mr.  Jackman  began  teaching  biology  in  the 
Pittsburg  High  School.  During  five  years'  con- 
nection with  that  school  he  became  strongly 
impressed  with  the  necessity  of  having  a  broad 
foundation  laid  in  the  elementary  grades  for 
the  study  of  science.  The  pupils  were  ignorant 
of  the  simplest  phenomena  that  occurred  about 
them.  In  the  spring  of  1889  he  planned  a  gen- 
eral course  in  nature-study  and  presented  it  to 
the  superintendent  and  the  principals  of  the 
ward  schools  in  Pittsburg.  It  was  agreed  that 
in  the  fall  he  should  have  the  privilege  of  meet- 
ing the  teachers  for  the  purpose  of  starting  this 
work  in  the  primary  and  grammar  grades. 
Before  the  year  closed,  however,  he  received 
an  invitation  from  Colonel  Parker  to  enter  the 
Cook  County  Normal  School  and  take  up  the 
work  with  him.  He  entered  on  the  work  in 
the  Cook  County  Normal  School  in  the  fall  of 
1889.  During  this  year  (1889)  he  elaborated 


22  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

the  plan  already  begun,  as  above  outlined. 
The  features  which  perhaps  most  distinguished 
this  scheme  of  nature-study  were:  (i)  That  it 
adopted  the  apparently  irregular  plan  of  using 
all  the  material  which  the  "Rolling  Year," 
season  by  season,  brought  into  the  lives  of  the 
children;  (2)  that  it  rejected  the  idea  of  close 
and  specialized  study  of  inert  or  dead  form  and 
sought  to  place  the  children  in  the  fields  and 
woods  that  they  might  study  all  nature  at  work ; 
and  (3)  that,  instead  of  looking  upon  nature- 
study  as  being  supplementary  to  reading,  writ- 
ing and  other  forms  of  expression,  nature-study 
in  itself  became  a  demand  that  these  subjects 
should  be  taught.  In  the  fall  of  1890  he  pub- 
lished bi-monthly  pamphlets  averaging  about 
seventy-five  pages  each,  which  were  called  "Out- 
lines in  Elementary  Science."  In  the  spring  of 
1891,  upon  the  completion  of  the  series,  Henry 
Holt  &  Company  asked  the  privilege  of  reprint- 
ing and  issuing  them  in  book  form.  This  was 
accomplished.  There  was  considerable  corre- 
spondence concerning  the  name,  which  resulted 
finally  in  the  adoption  of  the  term  "Nature-Study 


Who  First  Used  the  Term?         23 

for  Common  Schools,"  and  this  term  has  been 
used  continuously  ever  since. 

Another,  and  an  independent,  movement 
started  nearly  simultaneously  in  Massachusetts, 
under  the  leadership  of  Arthur  C.  Boyden,  now 
Vice-Principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  at 
Bridgewater,  Mass.  In  1889  a  committee  was 
appointed  in  the  Plymouth  County  Teachers' 
Association  to  recommend  a  plan  of  introducing 
nature-study  into  the  schools  of  the  county. 
For  a  number  of  years  previous  to  this  time  a 
definite  series  of  lessons  on  minerals,  plants  and 
animals  had  been  taught  in  the  Bridgewater 
Normal  School,  and  many  superintendents  and 
teachers  who  graduated  from  the  school  were 
teaching  the  subjects  in  various  parts  of  the 
county.  It  seemed  to  be  the  time  for  a  con- 
certed plan  of  work,  and  a  few  persons  who 
were  interested  in  it  took  this  means  of  starting. 
An  outline  for  the  study  of  trees  was  prepared 
and  sent  to  every  school  in  the  county,  with 
provisions  for  a  report  from  each  town  at  the 
next  annual  meeting.  This  plan  was  continued 
for  a  number  of  years,  and  usually  an  exhibition 


24  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

of  the  results  was  made.  The  work  secured 
such  a  good  hold  that  the  committee  was  finally 
discontinued.  In  the  same  year  the  subject  was 
taught  in  the  institutes,  held  each  fall  and  spring 
throughout  the  State  under  the  auspices  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  and  then  for  ten 
years  Mr.  Boyden  taught  and  lectured  in  these 
institutes  from  one  end  of  the  State  to  the  other. 
Printed  outlines  and  illustrated  lessons  were 
given.  In  1889,  also,  a  department  of  nature- 
study  was  established  in  the  summer  school  at 
Cottage  City,  and  Mr.  Boyden  carried  it  till 
1901.  The  definite  beginning  of  the  move- 
ment, as  such,  in  Massachusetts  seems  to  have 
been  in  1889.  At  first  the  work  was  called 
"elementary  science,"  but  this  seemed  to  be 
inappropriate,  and  "nature-study"  was  sug- 
gested. This  term  seemed  to  be  a  good 
equivalent  of  the  German  "naturkunde" — na- 
ture knowledge.  On  all  programs  it  was 
thus  printed  and  quickly  secured  standing. 
Shortly  after  the  movement  began,  the  "Con- 
ference of  Educational  Workers"  was  estab- 
lished. One  of  the  committees  had  charge  of 


Who  first  used  the  term  Nature-Study?  25 

nature-study  and  met  monthly  in  Boston.  Mr. 
G.  H.  Martin,  Agent  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, was  chairman,  and  Mr.  Boyden  was 
secretary.  They  worked  out  courses  of  study 
for  distribution,  and  one  year  they  had  a  large 
exhibit  from  the  whole  State  of  the  results  of 
the  work.  These  exhibits  were  common  in 
cities  between  1890  and  1895. 

Amos  M.  Kellogg,  editor  of  the  "New  York 
School  Journal"  from  1874  to  1904,  was  one 
of  the  early  writers  and  advocates  on  the  neces- 
sity of  drawing  on  the  world  about  us  in  the 
education  of  the  young.  Visiting  a  school  in 
Monroe  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  1885,  where 
the  teacher  was  imbued  with  enthusiasm  in  this 
direction  and  asked  for  special  directions,  he 
suggested  to  Frank  Owen  Payne  (who  was  then 
a  regular  contributor  to  the  "School  Journal"), 
the  preparation  of  specific  lessons;  as  the  term 
nature-study  came  to  be  used  he  suggested  to 
Mr.  Payne  the  need  of  the  hyphen  between  the 
words,  and  this  came  to  be  in  regular  employ- 
ment. The  specific  lessons  prepared  by  Mr. 
Payne  took  the  title  of  "One  Hundred  Lessons 


26  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Around  the  School."  Mr.  Payne  began  the 
employment  of  practical  nature-study  in  1884 
when  a  teacher  at  Corry,  Pennsylvania;  then 
in  1885-86  in  New  Jersey.  He  lectured  on  the 
subject  in  Minnesota  in  1886-89,  and  has  written 
on  it  for  educational  journals. 

Many  schools  in  several  states  were  introduc- 
ing elementary  science  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighties,  and  it  seems  that  several  of  them  began 
to  use  the  word  nature-study  without  knowing 
where  or  how  the  term  was  suggested.  The 
term  is  now  in  widespread  use  in  English-speak- 
ing countries. 

The  word  nature-study  was  used  in  January, 
1905,  in  the  title  of  a  monthly  magazine,  "The 
Nature-Study  Review,"  edited  and  published  by 
Professor  M.  A.  Bigelow  of  Teachers  College, 
Columbia  University,  with  a  board  of  advisory 
editors.  In  January,  1908,  the  "American 
Nature-Study  Society"  was  organized,  and  the 
Review  is  now  its  official  organ. 


Ill 

The  -Meaning  of  the  Nature-Study 
Movement 

IT  is  one  of  the  marks  of  the  progress  of  the 
race  that  we  are  coming  more  and  more  into 
sympathy  with  the  natural  world  in  which  we 
dwell.  The  objects  and  phenomena  become  a 
part  of  our  lives.  They  are  central  to  our 
thoughts.  The  happiest  life  has  the  greatest 
number  of  points  of  contact  with  the  world,  and 
it  has  the  deepest  sympathy  with  everything 
that  is. 

The  best  thing  in  life  is  sentiment;  and  the 
best  sentiment  is  that  which  is  born  of  the  most 
accurate  knowledge.  I  like  to  make  this  appli- 
cation of  Emerson's  injunction  to  "hitch  your 
wagon  to  a  star";  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  a  person  must  have  the  wagon  before  he 
has  the  star,  and  he  must  take  due  care  to 
stay  in  the  wagon  when  he  rides  in  space. 
Mere  facts  are  dead,  but  the  meaning  of  the 
facts  is  life.  The  getting  of  information  is 

27 


28  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

but  the  beginning  of  education.     "With  all  thy 
getting,  get  understanding." 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing feeling  that  we  must  live  closer  to  nature 
and  make  our  nature-sentiment  vital;  and  we 
must  of  course  begin  with  the  child.  We  at- 
tempt to  teach  this  nature-love  in  the  schools, 
and  we  call  the  effort  nature-study.  It  would 
be  better  if  it  were  called  nature-sympathy. 

As  yet  there  are  no  recognized  and  regulated 
methods  of  teaching  nature-study.  The  subject 
is  not  a  formal  part  of  the  course  of  study;  and 
thereby  it  is  not  perfunctory.  And  herein  lies 
much  of  its  value — in  the  fact  that  it  cannot  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  system,  is  not  cut  and  dried, 
cannot  become  a  part  of  rigid  and  formal  school 
method.  Its  very  essence  is  spirit.  It  is  as 
free  as  its  subject-matter,  as  far  removed  from 
the  museum  and  the  cabinet  as  the  living  animal 
is  from  the  skeleton. 

It  thus  transpires  that  there  is  much  con- 
fusion as  to  what  nature-study  is,  because  of  the 
different  attitudes  of  its  various  exponents;  but 
these  different  attitudes  are  largely  the  reflec- 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         29 

tions  of  different  personalities  and  the  working 
out  of  different  methods.  We  cannot  say  that 
one  way  is  right  and  another  wrong.  There 
may  be  twenty  best  ways  of  teaching  nature- 
study.  The  mode  is  essentially  the  expression 
of  one's  outlook  on  the  world.  Heretofore,  we 
have  put  the  emphasis  on  training  for  heaven 
and  taking  the  child  out  of  his  world. 

The  reader  who  has  followed  me  thus  far 
has  got  at  the  kernel  of  my  thought.  I  shall 
now  go  into  more  detail,  with  the  purpose  to 
relate  the  discussion  to  the  practical  work  of 
the  schoolroom,  to  develop  the  teacher's  attitude, 
and  to  state  the  essential  nature  of  the  move- 
ment in  different  ways  and  from  different  angles 
in  order  that  the  thought  may  stick.  This  chap- 
ter, therefore,  is  a  budget  of  suggestions  rather 
than  an  analysis. 

What  nature-study  Is  not 

There  are  two  or  three  fundamental  miscon- 
ceptions of  .what  nature-study  is  or  should  be; 
and  to  these  we  may  now  give  attention. 


30  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

It  is  not  the  teaching  of  science — not  the  sys- 
tematic pursuit  of  a  logical  body  of  principles. 
Its  intention  is  to  broaden  the  child's  horizon, 
not  primarily  to  teach  him  how  to  widen  the 
boundaries  of  human  knowledge.  It  is  not  the 
teaching  of  botany  or  entomology  or  geology, 
but  of  plants,  insects  and  fields.  But  many 
persons  who  are  teaching  under  the  name  of 
nature-study  are  merely  teaching  and  interpret- 
ing elementary  science.  Fundamentally,  nature- 
study  is  seeing  what  one  looks  at  and  drawing 
proper  conclusions  from  what  one  sees;  and 

,,/ 

thereby  the  learner  comes  into  personal  relation 
with  the  object. 

It  is  not  reading  from  nature-books.  Nature- 
study  is  studying  things  and  the  reason  of  things, 
not  about  things.  A  child  was  asked  if  she  had 
ever  seen  the  great  dipper.  "Oh,  yes,"  she  re- 
plied, "I  saw  it  in  my  geography."  This  is 
better  than  not  to  have  seen  it  at  all;  but  the 
proper  place  to  have  seen  it  is  in  the  heavens. 
Nature-readers  may  be  of  the  greatest  value  if 
they  are  made  incidental  and  secondary  features 
of  the  instruction;  but,  however  good  they  may 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         31 

be,  their  influence  is  pernicious  if  they  are  made 
to  be  primary  agents.  Nature-study  begins  with 
the  concrete,  as  the  child  does  if  left  to  itself. 
The  child  should  first  see  the  thing.  It  should 
then  reason  about  it.  Having  a  concrete  im- 
pression, it  may  then  go  to  the  book  to  widen 
its  knowledge  and  sympathies.  Having  seen 
mimicry  in  the  eggs  of  the  aphis  on  the  willow 
or  apple  twig,  or  in  the  walking-stick,  the  pupil 
may  then  take  an  excursion  with  Wallace  or 
Bates  to  the  tropics  and  there  see  the  striking 
mimicries  of  the  leaf-like  insects.  Having  seen 
the  wearing  away  of  the  boulder  or  the  ledge, 
he  may  go  to  Switzerland  with  Lubbock  and  see 
the  mighty  erosion  of  the  Alps.  Now  and  then 
the  order  may  be  reversed  with  profit,  but  this 
should  be  the  exception :  from  the  wagon  to  the 
star  should  be  the  rule. 

Nature-study  is  not  the  teaching  of  facts 
merely  for  the  sake  of  the  facts,  or  materials  for 
the  sake  of  the  materials:  its  purpose  is  to  de- 
velop certain  intellectual  powers  by  the  use  of 
the  materials.  It  is  not  the  giving  of  informa- 
tion only — notwithstanding  the  fact  that  some 


32  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

nature-study  leaflets  are  information  leaflets. 
We  must  begin  with  the  fact,  to  be  sure,  but  the 
lesson  lies  in  the  significance  of  the  fact.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  the  fact  have  direct  practical 
application  to  the  daily  life,  for  the  purpose  is 
the  effort  to  train  the  mind  and  the  sympathies 
and  to  develop  in  the  child  a  correct  view  of 
nature.  It  is  a  common  notion  that  when  the 
subject-matter  is  insects,  the  pupil  should  be 
taught  the  life-histories  of  injurious  insects  and 
how  to  destroy  the  pests.  Now,  nature-study 
may  be  equally  valuable  to  the  pupil,  whether 
the  subject  is  the  codlin-moth  or  the  ant,  since 
both  may  be  within  his  sphere  and  his  relations ; 
but  to  confine  the  pupil's  attention  to  insects 
that  are  injurious  to  man  is  to  give  him  a  dis- 
torted, partial  and  untrue  view  of  nature.  A 
bouquet  of  daisies  does  not  represent  a  meadow. 
It  is  not  a  program  for  the  teaching  of 
morals.  Children  should  be  interested  more 
in  seeing  things  live  and  in  studying  their  habits 
than  in  killing  them.  Yet  I  should  not  empha- 
size the  injunction,  'Thou  shalt  not  kill."  I 
should  prefer  to  have  the  child  become  so  much 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         33 

interested  in  living  things  that  it  would  have  no 
desire  to  kill  them.  The  gun  and  sling-shot 
and  steel-trap  will  be  laid  aside  because  the  child 
does  not  care  for  them  any  more.  We  have 
been  taught  that  one  must  make  collections  if 
he  is  to  be  a  naturalist;  but  collections  alone 
make  museums,  not  naturalists.  The  scientist 
needs  these  collections;  but  it  does  not  follow 
that  children  always  need  stuffed  animals,  birds' 
eggs,  and  bottled  specimens,  although  it  is 
important  to  encourage  a  regulated  collecting 
instinct. 

Nature-study  is  not  merely  the  adding  of  one 
more  thing  to  a  course  of  study.  It  is  not 
coordinate  with  geography  or  reading  or  arith- 
metic. Neither  is  it  a  mere  accessory,  or  a 
sentiment,  or  an  entertainment,  or  a  means  of 
injecting  vacant  wonder  into  the  pupils.  It  is 
not  "a  study.'*  It  is  not  the  addition  of  more 
"work."  A  new  "study"  taught  by  the  old 
method  would  not  represent  progress.  The 
idea  has  to  do  with  the  whole  point  of  view  of 
elementary  education,  and  therefore  is  under- 
lying. It  is  the  full  expression  of  personality. 
3 


34  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

It  relates  schooling  to  living.  It  is  a  practical 
working  out  of  the  extension  idea  that  has  been 
so  much  a  part  of  our  time.  More  than  any 
other  recent  movement,  it  will  reach  the  masses 
and  revive  them. 

Nature-study  should  not  be  unrelated  to  the 
child's  life  and  circumstances.  It  stands  for  di- 
rectness and  naturalness.  It  is  astonishing,  when 
one  comes  to  think  of  it,  how  indirect  and  how 
remote  from  the  lives  of  pupils  much  of  our  edu- 
cation has  been.  Geography  still  often  begins 
with  the  universe,  and  finally,  perhaps,  comes 
down  to  some  concrete  and  familiar  object  or 
scene  that  the  pupil  can  understand.  Arith- 
metic has  to  do  with  brokerage  and  partnerships 
and  partial  paiyments  and  other  things  that 
mean  nothing  to  the  child.  Botany  begins  with 
cells  and  protoplasm  and  cryptogams.  History 
deals  with  political  and  military  affairs,  and 
only  rarely  comes  down  to  physical  facts  and 
to  those  events  that  express  the  real  lives  of  the 
people;  and  yet  political  and  social  affairs  are 
only  the  results  or  expressions  of  the  way  in 
which  people  live.  Readers  begin  with  mere 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         35 

literature  or  with  stories  of  scenes  the  child  will 
never  see.  Of  course  these  statements  are 
meant  to  be  only  general,  as  illustrating  what  is 
even  yet  a  great  fault  in  educational  methods. 
There  are  many  exceptions,  and  these  are  be- 
coming commoner.  Surely,  the  best  education 
is  that  which  begins  with  the  materials  at  hand. 
A  child  knows  a  stone  before  it  knows  the  earth. 

The  outlook  by  fact  and  by  fancy 

There  are  two  ways  of  interpreting  nature — 
the  way  of  fact  and  the  way  of  fancy.  To  the 
scientist  and  to  the  average  man  the  interpreta- 
tion by  fact  is  usually  the  only  admissible  one. 
He  may  not  be  open  to  argument  or  conviction 
that  there  can  be  any  other  truthful  way  of  know- 
ing the  external  world.  Yet,  the  artist  and  the 
poet  know  this  world,  and  they  do  not  know  it 
by  cold  knowledge  or  by  analysis.  It  appeals  to 
them  in  its  moods.  Yet  it  is  as  real  to  them 
as  to  the  analyst.  Too  much  are  we  of  this 
generation  tied  to  mere  phenomena.. 

We  have  a  right  to  a  poetic  interpretation  of 
nature.  The  child  interprets  nature  and  the 


36  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

world  through  imagination  and  feeling  and  sym- 
pathy. Note  the  intent  and  sympathetic  face 
as  the  child  watches  the  ant  carrying  its  grains 
of  sand  and  pictures  to  itself  the  home  and  the 
bed  and  the  kitchen  and  the  sisters  and  the 
school  that  comprise  the  ant's  life.  What  does 
the  flower  think?  Who  are  the  little  people 
that  teeter  and  swing  in  the  sunbeam  ?  What  is 
the  brook  saying  as  it  rolls  over  the  pebbles? 
Why  is  the  wind  so  sorrowful  as  it  moans  on 
the  house-corners  in  the  dull  November  days? 
There  are  elves  whispering  in  the  trees,  and 
there  are  chariots  of  fire  rolling  on  the  long, 
low  clouds  at  twilight.  Wherever  it  may  look, 
the  young  mind  is  impressed  with  the  mystery 
of  the  unknown.  The  child  looks  out  to  nature 
with  great  eyes  of  wonder. 

We  cannot  say  that  the  good  poets  have  not 
known  nature,  because  they  have  not  inter- 
preted by  fact  alone.  Have  they  not  left  us  the 
essence  and  flavor  of  the  fields  and  the  woods 
and  the  sky?  And  yet  they  were  not  scientists. 
So  different  are  these  types  of  interpretation 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         37 

that  we  all  unconsciously  set  the  poet  over 
against  the  scientist. 

Good  poetry  is  not  mere  vacant  sentiment. 
The  poet  has  first  known  the  fact.  His  poetry 
is  misleading  if  his  observations  are  wrong. 
Whatever  else  we  are,  we  must  have  the  desire 
to  be  definite  and  accurate.  We  begin  on  the 
earth ;  later,  we  may  drive  our  Pegasus  to  a  star. 

Of  course  I  would  not  teach  nature-subjects 
in  order  that  the  poetic  point  of  view  may  be 
enforced.  I  plead  only  that  the  poetic  inter- 
pretation is  allowable.  It  may  be  one  result  of 
knowing  nature  for  the  sake  of  knowing  it. 

How  nature-study  may  be  taught 

How  shall  nature-study  be  taught?  By  the 
teacher  and  the  object.  The  teacher  will  need 
helps.  There  are  books  and  leaflets  that  will 
help  him.  These  publications  may  be  put  in 
the  hands  of  pupils  if  it  is  always  made  plain 
that  the  recitation  is  to  be  from  objects  and 
situations  that  the  pupil  has  seen,  not  from  the 
book.  There  can  be  no  text-book  of  real  na- 
ture-study, for  when  one  studies  a  book  he  does 


38  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

not  study  nature.  The  book  should  be  a  guide 
to  the  animal  or  plant:  the  animal  or  plant 
should  not  be  a  guide  to  the  book. 

The  teacher  may  need  the  help  of  a  program 
or  consecutive  purpose.  The  program,  how- 
ever, should  not  be  a  tabulated  series  of  regula- 
tions or  a  hard-and-fast  system;  but  there  should 
be  some  underlying  educational  principle  or  in- 
tention running  through  every  item  of  it.  The 
work  may  be  informal  and  free  without  being 
aimless. 

This  immediate  purpose  or  plan  may  be  to 
teach  the  progress  of  the  seasons;  the  common 
implements  and  simple  handcrafts;  the  plant 
life  of  the  neighborhood;  the  bird  life;  the  usual 
insects;  the  heavens;  the  weather  and  its  rela- 
tions with  man  and  animals;  something  of  the 
farming  or  industries  of  the  region;  one's  own 
mind  and  body  and  how  they  should  be  gov- 
erned in  the  interest  of  good  health;  or  some 
other  theme  that  will  tie  the  work  together.  In 
practice,  the  work  will  almost  necessarily  be 
consecutive  because  the  teacher  will  feel  himself 
competent  in  two  or  three  lines  and  will  devote 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         39 

himself  to  them.  The  environment  will  sug- 
gest the  work. 

There  will  be  opportunity  for  endless  varia- 
tion in  the  details  and  in  the  little  applications 
of  the  work.  The  personality  of  the  teacher 
must  always  stand  out  strongly.  We  need  the 
very  best  of  teachers  for  nature-study — those 
who  have  the  greatest  personal  enthusiasm,  and 
who  are  least  bound  by  the  traditions  of  the 
classroom.  The  teacher,  to  be  ideal,  must  have 
more  time,  more  feeling,  and  more  knowl- 
edge. It  is  better  if  the  teacher  have  a  large 
knowledge  of  science,  but  nature-study  may  be 
taught  without  great  knowledge  if  one  sees 
accurately  and  infers  correctly  from  the  par- 
ticular subject  in  hand. 

The  teacher  should  avoid  starting  with 
definitions  and  the  setting  of  patterns.  Defini- 
tions should  be  the  result  or  summary  of  the 
study,  not  the  beginning  of  it.  Mere  patterns 
should  afford  means  of  comparison  only,  and 
not  be  regarded  as  useful  in  themselves;  and 
even  then  they  are  often  misleading.  The  old 
idea  of  the  model  flower  is  an  unfortunate  one, 


40  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

because  the  model  flower  does  not  exist  in  na- 
ture. The  model  flower,  the  complete  leaf,  and 
the  like,  are  inferences;  and  the  pupil  should 
not  begin  with  abstract  ideas.  In  other  words, 
the  ideas  should  be  suggested  by  the  things,  and 
not  the  things  by  the  ideas.  "Here  is  a  draw- 
ing of  a  model  flower/'  the  old  method  says; 
"go  and  find  the  nearest  approach  to  it."  "Go 
and  find  me  a  flower,"  is  the  better  method, 
"and  let  us  see  what  it  is." 

Two  factors  determine  the  proper  subjects 
for  any  teacher  to  choose  for  nature-study 
instruction.  First,  the  subject  must  be  that  in 
which  the  teacher  is  most  interested  and  of  which 
he  has  the  most  knowledge;  second,  it  must 
represent  that  which  is  commonest  and  which 
can  be  most  easily  seen  and  appreciated  by  the 
pupil,  and  which  is  nearest  and  dearest  to  his  life. 

With  children,  begin  with  naked-eye  objects. 
As  the  pupil  matures  and  becomes  interested, 
the  simple  microscope  may  be  introduced  now 
and  then.  Children  of  twelve  years  and  more 
may  carry  a  pocket  lens;  but  the  best  place  to 
use  this  lens  is  in  the  field.  The  best  nature- 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         41 

study  observation  is  that  which  is  done  out-of- 
doors  ;  but  some  of  it  can  be  made  from  material 
brought  into  the  schoolroom. 

The  tendency  is  to  go  too  far  afield  for  the 
subject-matter.  We  are  more  likely  to  know 
the  wonders  of  China  or  Brazil  than  of  our  own 
brooks  and  woods.  If  the  subject-matter  is  of 
such  kind  that  the  children  can  see  the  objects 
as  they  come  and  go  from  the  school,  and  collect 
some  of  them,  the  results  will  be  the  better. 
As  the  pupil  matures,  he  should  be  taken  out  to 
the  world  activities. 

It  is  a  sound  educational  principle  that  the 
child  should  not  be  taught  mere  dilutions  of 
science.  The  young  child  cannot  understand 
cross-fertilization  of  flowers,  and  should  not  be 
taught  the  subject.  It  is  beyond  the  child's 
realm.  When  we  teach  it  to  young  children, 
we  are  only  translating  what  grown-up  investi- 
gators have  discovered  by  means  of  faithful 
search.  At  best,  it  will  only  be  an  exotic  thing 
to  the  child.  Pollen  and  stamens  are  not  near 
and  dear  to  the  child. 

There  are  three  steps  in  the  teaching  of  na- 
ture-study : 


42  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

(1)  The  fact, 

(2)  The  reason  for  the  fact, 

(3)  The  interrogation  left  in  the  mind  of 
the  pupil. 

It  is  impossible  to  find  a  natural-history  object 
from  which  these  three  factors  cannot  be  drawn, 
for  every  object  is  a  fact  and  every  fact  has  a 
cause,  and  children  may  be  interested  in  both 
the  fact  and  the  cause.  It  may  be  better,  of 
course,  to  choose  definite  subjects,  taking  pains, 
at  least  at  first,  to  choose  those  having  emphatic 
characters. 

But  even  in  the  dullest  days  of  winter  sufficient 
materials  may  be  found  to  keep  the  interest 
aflame.  A  twig  or  a  branch  may  be  at  hand. 
There  should  be  enough  specimens  to  supply 
each  child.  Let  the  teacher  ask  the  pupils  what 
they  see.  The  replies  will  discover  the  first 
factor  in  the  teaching — the  fact.  However, 
not  every  fact  is  significant  to  the  teacher 
or  to  the  particular  pupils.  It  remains  for 
the  teacher  to  pick  out  the  fact  or  answer 
that  is  most  significant.  The  teacher  should 
know  what  is  significant  and  he  should  keep  the 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         43 

point  clearly  before  him.  One  pupil  says  that 
the  twig  is  long;  another  that  it  is  brown; 
another  that  it  is  crooked;  another  that  it  is 
from  an  apple  tree;  another  that  it  has  several 
unlike  branchlets  or  parts.  Now,  this  last  reply 
may  appeal  to  the  teacher  as  most  significant. 
Stop  the  questioning  and  open  the  second  epoch 
in  the  instruction — the  reason  why  no  two  parts 
are  alike.  As  before,  from  the  great  number 
of  responses  the  significant  reason  may  be  de- 
veloped: it  is  because  no  two  parts  have  lived 
under  exactly  the  same  conditions.  One  had 
more  room  or  more  sunlight  and  it  grew  larger. 
The  third  epoch  follows  naturally:  are  there 
any  two  objects  in  nature  exactly  alike?  Let 
the  pupils  think  about  it. 

Choose  a  stone.  If  similar  stones  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  pupils,  you  ask  first  for  the  observa- 
tion or  the  fact.  One  says  that  the  stone  is 
long;  another,  it  is  light;  another,  it  is  heavy; 
another,  that  the  edges  are  rounded.  This 
latter  fact  is  very  significant.  You  stop  the 
observation  and  ask  why  it  is  rounded.  Some 
one  replies  that  it  is  because  it  is  water-worn. 


44  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Query:  Are  all  stones  in  brooks  rounded? 
Numberless  applications  and  suggestions  can  be 
made  from  this  simple  lesson.  What  becomes 
of  the  particles  that  are  worn  away?  How  has 
soil  been  formed?  How  has  the  surface  of  the 
fields  been  shaped  and  molded? 

It  is  not  necessary  that  the  teacher  always 
know  the  reason.  He  may  propose  that  they 
all  find  out  and  report.  It  is  the  strong 
teacher  who  can  say:  "I  do  not  know."  If  a 
problem  had  been  sent  to  Agassiz  or  Asa  Gray 
and  he  had  not  understood  it,  would  he  have 
dissimulated  or  have  evaded  in  the  answer? 
Would  he  not  have  said  unhesitatingly,  "I  do 
not  know"?  Such  men  delve  for  knowledge, 
but  for  every  fact  that  they  discover  they  turn 
up  a  dozen  mysteries.  Knowledge  begins  in 
wonder.  The  consciousness  of  ignorance  is  the 
first  result  of  wonder,  and  it  leads  the  pupil  on 
and  on :  it  is  the  spirit  of  inquiry. 

These  illustrations  are  given  merely  as  exam- 
ples. They  may  not  be  ideal,  but  they  show 
what  can  be  done  with  very  common  material. 
In  fact,  the  surprise  and  interest  is  often  all  the 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         45 

greater  because  the  objects  are  so  very  common 
and  familiar. 

To  my  mind,  one  of  the  best  of  all  subjects 
for  nature-study  is  a  brook.  It  affords  studies 
of  many  kinds.  It  is  near  and  dear  to  every 
child.  It  is  an  epitome  of  the  nature  in  which 
we  live.  In  miniature,  it  illustrates  the  forces 
that  have  shaped  much  of  the  earth's  surface. 
It  reflects  the  sky.  It  is  kissed  by  the  sun.  It 
is  rippled  by  the  wind.  The  minnows  play  in 
the  pools.  The  soft  weeds  grow  in  the  shal- 
lows. The  grass  and  the  dandelions  lie  on  its 
banks.  The  moss  and  the  fern  are  sheltered  in 
the  nooks.  It  comes  one  knows  not  whence;  it 
flows  one  knows  not  whither.  It  awakens  the 
desire  to  explore.  It  is  fraught  with  mysteries. 
It  typifies  the  flood  of  life.  It  "goes  on  for- 


ever." 


In  other  words,  the  reason  why  the  brook  is 
such  a  perfect  nature-study  subject  is  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  central  theme  in  a  scene  of  life. 
Living  things  appeal  to  children.  To  relate 
the  nature-study  work  to  living  animals  and 
plants  should  constitute  the  burden  of  the  effort. 


46  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

I  would  study  a  brook  or  a  fence-corner  or  a 
garden-bed  or  a  bird  or  a  domestic  animal  or 
an  insect  or  a  plant.  The  life-histories  of  cer- 
tain insects,  and  all  common  forms  of  life,  afford 
excellent  nature-study  exercise  for  pupils  of 
proper  age. 

However,  the  teacher  and  the  way  of  teach- 
ing are  more  important  than  the  subject-matter, 
and  there  are  good  nature-study  teachers  who 
are  better  fitted  to  teach  inanimate  than  animate 
subjects.  There  is  no  better  nature-study  exer- 
cise than  to  observe  the  erosion  by  brooks, 
floods,  and  rains,  if  the  teacher  is  prepared  to 
handle  it;  and  surely  nothing  can  be  more  im- 
portant than  to  put  the  child  in  sympathy 
with  the  weather;  and  all  persons  should  have 
the  habit  of  looking  at  the  heavens  in  day  and 
night. 

It  is  due  to  every  child  that  his  mind  be 
opened  to  the  voices  of  nature.  The  world  is 
always  quick  with  sounds,  although  our  ears  are 
closed  to  them.  Every  person  hears  the  loud 
songs  of  birds,  the  sweep  of  heavy  winds  and 
the  rush  of  rapid  rivers  or  the  sea ;  but  the  small 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         47 

voices  with  which  we  live  are  known  not  to  one 
in  ten  thousand.  To  be  able  to  distinguish  the 
notes  of  the  different  birds  is  one  of  the  choicest 
resources  in  life,  and  it  should  be  one  of  the 
first  results  of  a  good  education.  It  is  but  a 
step  from  this  to  the  other  small  voices,-— of  the 
insects,  the  frogs  and  toads,  the  mice,  the  domes- 
tic animals,  the  flow  of  quiet  waters,  and  the 
noises  of  the  little  winds.  It  is  a  great  thing 
when  one  learns  how  to  listen.  At  least  once, 
every  young  person  should  sleep  far  out  in  the 
open,  preferably  in  a  wood  or  the  margin  of  a 
wood,  that  he  may  know  the  spirit  and  the  voices 
of  the  night  and  thereafter  be  free  and  unafraid. 

Similar  remarks  may  be  made  of  the  odors, 
for  the  world  breathes  a  multitude  of  fragrances 
of  which  most  persons  are  wholly  unaware. 
Usually  only  the  strong  smells  are  known  to  us, 
and  we  merely  divide  them  into  two  classes, — 
those  that  we  like  and  those  that  we  do  not  like. 

All  the  senses  should  be  so  trained  and  ad- 
justed that  all  our  world  becomes  alive  to  us. 
Then  we  are  really  sensitive. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  a  child  should 


48  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

learn  when  he  comes  to  the  study  of  natural 
history  is  the  fact  that  no  two  objects  are  alike. 
This  leads  to  the  correlated  fact  that  every 
animal  and  plant  contends  for  an  opportunity 
to  live,  and  this  is  the  central  theme  in  the  study 
of  living  things.  The  world  has  a  new  mean- 
ing when  this  fact  is  understood.  This  is  the 
key  that  unlocks  many  mysteries,  and  it  is  the 
means  of  establishing  a  bond  of  sympathy  be- 
tween ourselves  and  the  world  in  which  we  live. 
It  is  a  common  mistake  to  attempt  to  teach 
too  much  at  each  exercise;  and  the  teacher  is 
also  appalled  at  the  amount  of  information  that 
he  must  have.  Suppose  that  one  teaches  two 
hundred  and  fifty  days  in  the  year.  Start  out 
with  the  determination  to  drop  into  the  pupils' 
minds  two  hundred  and  fifty  suggestions  about 
nature.  One  suggestion  is  sufficient  for  a  day. 
Let  them  think  about  it  and  ponder  over  it. 
We  stuff  our  children  so  full  of  facts  that  they 
cannot  digest  them.  I  should  prefer  ten  min- 
utes a  day  of  nature-study  to  two  hours;  but  I 
should  want  it  quick,  sharp,  vivid  and  spon- 
taneous. I  should  want  it  designed  to  develop 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         49 

the  observing  and  reasoning  powers  of  the  child 
and  not  to  gorge  the  pupil.  Spirit  counts  for 
more  .than  knowledge. 

It  is  well  to  verify  observations  and  con- 
clusions on  different  days.  Let  the  pupils  com- 
pare ideas  and  experiences.  This  develops  an 
intellectual  habit  of  taking  nothing  on  hearsay 
or  for  granted. 

Taught  in  this  way,  nature-study  work  is  not 
an  additional  burden  to  the  teacher,  but  may  be 
made  a  relief  and  a  relaxation.  It  may  come 
at  the  opening  of  the  school  hour,  or  at  the  close 
of  a  hard  period,  or  at  other  time  when  an 
opportunity  offers.  It  may  often  be  combined 
with  the  regular  studies  of  the  school,  and  in 
that  way  it  may  be  introduced  in  places  where  it 
would  otherwise  meet  with  objection.  For  ex- 
ample, the  subject-matter  of  the  nature-lesson 
may  be  used  for  the  exercise  in  drawing  or  in 
geography.  Let  the  child  draw  the  twigs;  but 
always  be  careful  that  the  drawing  does  not 
become  more  important  than  the  twigs. 

My  remarks  on  procedure  are  meant,  of 
course,  to  apply  to  children.  As  the  pupil  ad- 
4 


50  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

vances,  the  work  will  naturally  become  more 
systematic,  until,  in  the  high  school,  it  may 
develop  into  more  formal  teaching,  and  then  a 
regular  period  will  be  required.  Those  who 
complain  that  nature-study  is  desultory  are 
really  thinking  of  science,  not  of  nature-study. 
Although  not  the  teaching  of  science,  as  such, 
nature-study  is  not  unscientific.  It  is  not  in  any 
sense  a  letting  down  of  standards,  if  properly 
handled,  but  a  new  intention  in  education. 

What  may  be  the  results  of  nature-study? 

Its  legitimate  result  is  education — the  de- 
veloping of  mental  power,  the  opening  of  the 
eyes  and  the  mind,  the  civilizing  of  the  indi- 
vidual. As  with  all  education,  its  central 
purpose  is  to  make  the  individual  happy;  for 
happiness  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  pleasant 
and  efficient  thinking,  coming  from  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  mastery,  or  at  least  the  understand- 
ing, of  the  conditions  in  which  we  live. 

The  happiness  of  the  ignorant  man  is  largely 
of  physical  pleasures;  that  of  the  educated  man 
is  of  intellectual  pleasures.  One  may  find  com- 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         51 

radeship  in  a  groggery,  the  other  may  find  it  in 
a  dandelion;  and  inasmuch  as  there  are  more 
dandelions  than  groggeries  (in  most  communi- 
ties), the  educated  man  has  the  greater  chance 
of  happiness. 

Some  persons  object  to  nature-study  because  it 
is  not  systematic  and  graded.  They  think  that 
it  leads  to  disjunctive  and  discursive  work.  The 
informality  may  be  its  charm.  Thereby  comes 
the  contrast  with  the  perfunctory  school  work; 
and  thereby,  also,  arises  its  naturalness  and  its 
freedom.  It  is  easily  possible  to  "organize" 
nature-work  until  it  becomes  as  automatic  as 
other  work.  The  formal  school  work  will 
supply  the  drill  in  method  and  system.  Nature- 
study  will  afford  relaxation,  and  it  will  be 
valuable  because  it  is  short,  forceful,  and  volun- 
tary; and  this  result  is  worth  securing. 

The  mode  of  presentation  that  naturally 
develops  in  nature-study  teaching  is  really  very 
important  in  its  effect  on  the  pupil's  approach 
to  subject-matter  and  on  his  outlook  to  the 
world.  The  presentation  is  quick,  simple, 


52  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

direct,  little  confused  by  apparatus  and  self- 
consciousness  and  side  issues. 

Good  nature-study  teaching  develops  per- 
sonality and  encourages  the  pupil  to  think  for 
himself  and  to  maintain  an  individual  relation 
to  his  world.  It  emphasizes  adaptation  to  life 
as  distinguished  from  the  tendency  of  much  of 
our  teaching  to  produce  uniformity  of  thought 
and  action. 

Nature-study  not  only  educates,  but  it  edu- 
cates nature-ward;  and  nature  is  ever  our  com- 
panion, whether  we  will  or  no.  Even  though 
we  are  determined  to  shut  ourselves  in  an  office, 
nature  sends  her  messengers.  The  light,  the 
dark,  the  moon,  the  cloud,  the  rain,  the  wind, 
the  falling  leaf,  the  fly,  the  bouquet,  the  bird, 
the  cockroach — they  are  all  ours.  Few  of  us 
can  travel.  We  must  know  the  things  at  home. 

Nature-love  tends  toward  simplicity  of  living. 
It  tends  country-ward.  "God  made  the  country." 

Nature-study  ought  to  revolutionize  the  school 
life,  for  it  is  capable  of  putting  new  force  and 
enthusiasm  into  the  school  and  the  child.  It 
is  new,  and  therefore  is  called  a  whim.  A  move- 
ment is  a  whim  until  it  succeeds.  We  shall  learn 


Meaning  of  the  Movement         53 

much,  and  shall  outgrow  some  of  our  present 
notions,  and  shall  eliminate  the  vagaries.  It 
is  in  much  the  stage  of  development  that  manual- 
training  and  kindergarten  work  were  twenty-five 
years  ago.  We  must  take  care  that  it  does  not 
crystallize  into  science-teaching  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  fall  into  mere  sentimentalism  and  gush  on 
the  other. 

In  many  ways  we  are  now  in  a  transition 
period  in  our  school  systems.  We  are  living  in 
an  era  of  the  material  equipment  of  schools — 
the  erecting  of  magnificent  buildings,  the  gather- 
ing of  extensive  outfits.  This  is  true  of  colleges 
and  universities  as  well  as  of  the  common 
schools.  When  this  era  is  past,  we  shall  have 
more  money  to  spend  for  teachers.  Teaching 
will  be  a  profession  requiring  better  training 
and  commanding  more  pay,  and  men  teachers 
will  come  back  to  it. 

In  this  evolved  and  emancipated  school,  the 
nature-study  spirit  will  prevail,  even  though  the 
name  itself  be  lost.  This  spirit  stands  for  a 
normal  outlook  on  life.  It  is  the  active  and 


54  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

creative  method.  It  is  a  developing  of  the 
powers  of  the  pupil,  not  hearing  him  recite. 
In  spirit  and  method,  it  is  opposed  to  the  pour- 
ing-in  and  dipping-out  process. 

The  nature-study  effort  sets  our  thinking  in 
the  direction  of  our  daily  doing.  It  relates  the 
schoolroom  to  the  life  that  the  child  is  to  lead. 
It  makes  the  common  and  familiar  affairs  seem 
to  be  worth  the  while.  It  ought  to  make  men 
and  women  effective  and  responsible.  Essen- 
tially, it  is  not  an  ideal  for  the  school  any  more 
than  it  is  for  the  home ;  but  so  completely  do  we 
delegate  all  work  of  teaching  and  instructing  to 
the  school,  that  nature-study  effort  comes  to  be, 
in  practice,  a  schoolroom  subject.  The  ideal 
of  the  parent  or  the  teacher  should  be  to  bring 
the  child  into  natural  relations  with  its  world; 
but  whatever  may  be  in  the  mind  and  hope  of 
the  teacher,  so  far  as  the  child  is  concerned  the 
nature-sympathy  must  come  as  a  natural  effect 
of  actual  observation  and  study  of  definite 
objects  and  phenomena. 

I  will  mention  two  forms  of  adaptation  to 
life,  as  illustrations  of  what  I  mean.  ( i )  Na- 


Meaning  of  the  Movement  55 
ture-study  teaching  ought  to  utilize,  as  means  of 
education,  the  tools  that  a  boy  or  girl  naturally 
uses.  The  habits  of  men  are  as  important  as 
those  of  other  animals.  How  to  use  a  jack- 
knife,  a  hoe,  a  saw,  an  auger,  a  hammer,  or 
other  implement  by  means  of  which  man  adapts 
himself  to  his  conditions,  is  a  very  essential  part 
of  good  teaching,  but  one  that  is  almost  uni- 
versally neglected.  The  tools  of  the  household 
may  be  made  the  means  of  training  a  girl  to  a 
new  hold  on  life.  These  devices  are  not  to  be 
studied  merely  as  implements,  but  as  a  part  of 
the  study  of  the  natural  history  of  human  beings. 
All  this  would  constitute  a  manual-training  that 
would  be  founded  on  good  sense.  (2)  The 
pupil  should  be  taught  to  make  observations  on 
himself.  He  will  find  himself  to  be  a  very 
interesting  natural-history  object.  It  is  just  as 
well  to  know  how  a  man  walks  as  to  know  how 
a  horse  or  a  crow  walks.  The  unconscious  and 
automatic  habits  of  men  and  women  are  as 
interesting  as  those  of  fish  and  insects.  This 
kind  of  observation  ought  to  have  remarkable 
significance  to  health.  It  is  most  strange  how 


56  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

little  we  reason  from  cause  to  effect  in  our  own 
habits  of  eating  and  drinking  and  sleeping  and 
exercise,  and  how  much  we  rely  on  the  phy- 
sician to  advise  us  in  matters  on  which  we  our- 
selves would  be  much  better  judges  if  we 
observed  ourselves  as  closely  as  we  observe 
other  objects.  The  simple  regulation  of  the 
daily  habits  of  life  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
good  health.  The  application  of  the  nature- 
study  spirit  of  direct  and  simple  observation  of 
ourselves,  with  less  of  the  physician's  physiology, 
would  benefit  the  pupil  and  also  our  civilization 
immeasurably. 

The  great  intention  of  nature-study  is  to 
cultivate  a  sensible  interest  in  the  out-of-doors, 
and  to  remove  all  conventional  obstacles  there- 
to. Real  interest  in  the  out-of-doors  does  not 
lie  in  the  physical  comfort  of  being  in  the  open 
in  "good"  weather  (persons  who  have  this  out- 
look do  not  know  nature),  but  in  spiritual  in- 
sight and  sympathy.  One  sleeps  in  the  woods 
or  fields  not  because  these  are  the  most  com- 
fortable places  in  which  to  spend  the  night,  but 
that  he  may  have  communion  and  freedom. 


The  Nature-Study  Idea  57 

There  is  a  large  public  and  social  result  of 
simple  and  direct  teaching  of  common  things. 
It  explains  the  relations  between  man  and  his 
environment.  It  establishes  a  new  sense  of  our 
dependence  on  the  natural  resources  of  the 
earth,  and  leads  us  not  to  abuse  nature  or  to 
waste  our  resources.  It  develops  a  public 
intelligence  on  these  matters,  and  it  ought  to 
influence  community  conduct.  All  teaching  that 
is  direct,  native  and  understandable  should 
greatly  influence  the  bearing  of  the  individual 
toward  his  conditions  and  his  fellows,  awaken 
his  moral  nature,  and  teach  him  something  of 
the  art  of  living  in  the  world. 


I 


IV 

The  Integument-Man 

WROTE  a  nature-study  leaflet  on  "How  a 
Squash  Plant  gets  out  of  the  Seed."  A 
botanist  wrote  me  that  it  were  a  pity  to  place 
such  an  error  of  statement  before  the  child:  it 
should  have  read,  "How  the  Squash  Plant  Gets 
Out  of  the  Integument." 

Of  course  my  friend  was  correct:  the  squash 
plant  gets  out  of  an  integument.  But  I  was 
anxious  to  teach  the  essence  of  the  squash  plant's 
behavior,  not  a  mere  verbal  fact — and  what 
child  was  ever  interested  in  an  integument? 

It  is  the  old  question  over  again — the  ques- 
tion of  the  point  of  view  and  what  one  is  driving 
at.  A  person  may  be  so  intent  on  mere  literal 
veracity  that  he  misses  the  pupil.  Much  of 
our  natural-science  teaching  is  as  hard  and  dead 
as  the  old  Latin  and  mathematics. 

It  is  the  fear  of  the  Integument-Man  that 
keeps  many  a  good  teacher  from  teaching 
nature-study.  He  is  afraid  that  he  will  make  a 


The  Integument-Man  59 

mistake  in  statements  of  small  fact.  Now,  the 
person  who  is  afraid  of  making  a  mistake  is  the 
very  person  to  trust,  because  he  will  be  careful. 
Of  course  he  will  make  mistakes — every  one 
does  who  really  accomplishes  anything;  but  the 
mistakes  will  be  relatively  few:  he  will  at  once 
admit  the  mistakes  and  correct  them  when  they 
are  discovered,  and  the  pupils  will  catch  his 
desire  for  accuracy  and  admire  the  sincerity  of 
his  purpose.  Pity  the  man  who  has  never  made 
an  error! 

The  teacher  often  hesitates  to  teach  nature- 
study  because  of  lack  of  technical  knowledge  of 
the  subject.  This  is  well;  but  technical  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  does  not  make  a  good 
teacher.  Expert  specialists  are  so  likely  to  go 
into  mere  details  and  to  pursue  particular  sub- 
jects so  far,  when  teaching  beginners,  as  to  miss 
the  leading  and  emphatic  points.  They  are  so 
cognizant  of  exceptions  to  every  rule  that  they 
qualify  their  statements  until  the  statements 
have  no  spirit  and  no  force.  There  are  other 
ideals  than  those  of  dead  accuracy.  It  is  more 
important  that  any  teacher  be  a  good  teacher 


60  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

than  a  good  scientist.  But  being  a  good  scien- 
tist ought  not  to  spoil  a  good  teacher.  The 
Integument-Man  sees  the  little  things  and 
teaches  details,  and  his  teaching  is  "dry."  He 
lacks  imagination. 

The  child  wants  things  in  the  large  and  in 
relation;  when  it  gets  to  the  high-school  or 
college  it  may  carry  analysis  and  dissection  to 
the  limit. 

The  Integument-Man  teaches  science,  al- 
though it  is  not  necessarily  the  best  science. 
The  child  wants  nature. 

The  Integument-Man  thinks  that  if  any  work 
is  only  accurate  it  is  thereby  of  value;  and 
accuracy  in  nature-study  begets  accuracy  in 
science,  when  the  pupil  takes  it  up  later  on. 
This  is  all  well  enough;  but  the  child  can  be 
accurate  only  so  far  as  it  can  comprehend:  it 
must  work  in  its  own  sphere;  integuments  are 
not  in  the  child's  sphere. 

The  degree  of  statement  is  more  important 
than  final  accuracy — if  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
final  accuracy;  all  knowledge  is  relative,  and 


The  Integument-Man  61 

what  is  within  the  range  of  one  mind  may  be 
far  beyond  the  range  of  another,  and  it  is  folly 
to  try  to  make  the  statement  as  full  and  accurate 
for  the  latter  mind  as  for  the  former.  A  very 
imperfect  statement  of  osmosis  is  accurate  for 
a  child  or  a  young  pupil;  a  fuller  statement  is 
accurate  for  the  college  student;  and  a  still 
fuller  and  exacter  statement  is  accurate  for  the 
physicist;  but  perhaps  it  is  impossible  to  make 
any  statement  of  it  that  is  finally  accurate.  The 
Integument-Man  confuses  all  these  degrees,  and 
thinks  that  because  the  statement  is  inaccurate 
for  the  physicist,  it  is  therefore  inaccurate  for 
the  pupil  or  the  child.  Refined  verbiage  that 
safeguards  the  statement  to  the  scientist,  may 
confuse  it  to  the  beginner.  It  may  be  only 
pedantry  and  narrowness.  It  is  not  an  acci- 
dent that  some  of  the  most  useful  text-books 
have  been  made  by  persons  who  do  not  know 
too  much  about  the  subject. 

The  Integument-Man  is  fearful  of  every 
word  that  seems  to  imply  motive  or  direction  in 
plants  and  the  lower  animals.  uThe  roots  go 
here  and  there  in  search  of  food"  is  wrong 


62  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

because  roots  do  not  "go."  Seeds  do  not 
"travel."  Plants  do  not  "prepare"  for  winter. 
I  wonder,  then,  whether  water  "runs"  or  winds 
"blow."  This  verbal  preciseness  forgets  that 
words  are  only  metaphors  and  parables,  their 
significance  determined  by  the  use  of  them,  and 
that  the  essential  truth,  or  the  spirit,  is  what  we 
should  search  for — expressing  it,  when  found, 
in  language  that  is  alive,  unmistakable,  and  con- 
formed to  best  usage.  We  must  measure  the 
value  of  any  statement  to  the  child  in  good  part 
by  the  strength  and  vitality  of  the  picture  that 
it  raises  in  the  mind  (p.  159). 

The  Integument-Man  insists  on  "methods." 
The  other  day  a  young  man  wanted  me  to 
recommend  him  as  a  teacher  of  one  of  the 
sciences  in  a  public  school.  He  explained  that 
he  had  had  a  complete  course  in  this  and  in 
that;  he  could  teach  the  whole  subject  as  laid 
down  in  the  books;  he  knew  all  the  methods. 
It  was  evident  that  he  was  well  drilled.  He 
had  acquired  a  repertory  of  facts.  These  facts 
were  carefully  assorted  and  ticketed,  and  tucked 
away  in  his  mental  cupboard  as  embroidered 


The  Integument-Man  63 

and  perfumed  napkins  are  laid  away  in  a 
drawer.  Poor  fellow! 

Mere  details  have  little  educative  value. 
An  imperfect  method  that  is  adapted  to 
one's  use  is  better  than  a  perfect  one  that 
cannot  be  well  used.  Some  school  labora- 
tories are  so  perfect  that  they  discourage  the 
pupil  in  taking  up  investigations  when  thrown 
on  his  own  resources.  Imperfect  equipment 
often  encourages  ingenuity  and  originality.  A 
good  teacher  is  better  than  all  the  methods  and 
laboratories  and  apparatus. 

I  like  the  man  who  has  had  an  incomplete 
course.  A  partial  view,  if  truthful,  is  worth 
more  than  a  complete  course,  if  lifeless.  If 
the  man  has  acquired  power  for  work,  a 
capability  for  initiative  and  investigation,  an 
enthusiasm  for  the  daily  life,  his  incompleteness 
is  his  strength.  How  much  there  is  before 
him!  How  eager  his  eye!  How  enthusiastic 
his  temper !  He  is  a  man  with  a  point  of  view. 
This  man  will  see  first  the  large  and  significant 
events;  he  will  grasp  relationships;  he  will  cor- 
relate; later,  he  will  consider  the  details.  He 


64  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

will  study  the  plant  before  he  studies  the  leaf  or 
germination  or  the  cell.  He  will  discover  the 
bobolink  before  he  looks  for  its  toes.  He  will 
care  little  for  mere  ' 'methods.'1  His  teaching 
will  have  freshness. 

The  Integument-Man  is  afraid  that  this  popu- 
lar nature-study  will  undermine  and  discourage 
the  teaching  of  science.     Needless  to  say,  the 
fear   is   absurdly  groundless.     Science-teaching 
is  a  part  of  the  very  fabric  of  our  civilization. 
All  our  goings  and  our  comings  are  adjusted 
to  it.     No  sane  man  wishes  to  cheapen  or  dis- 
courage the  teaching  of  science.     Nature-study 
is  not  opposed   to   it.     Nature-study  prepares 
the  child  to  receive  the  science-teaching.     Grad- 
ually, as  the  child  matures,  nature-study  may 
grow  into  science-learning  if  the  pupil  so  elect. 
Science-teaching  has  more  to  fear  from  desic- 
cated science-teaching  than  it  has  from  nature- 
study.     It  is  the  Integument-Man  himself  who 
is  discouraging  the  teaching  of  science.     Every- 
thing that  is  true   and  worth  the  while  will 
endure. 

All    youths    love    nature.     None    of    them, 


The  Integument-Man  65 

primarily,  loves  science.  They  are  interested 
in  the  things  that  they  see.  By  and  by  they 
begin  to  arrange  their  knowledge  and  impres- 
sions, and  thereby  to  pursue  a  science.  The 
idea  of  the  science  should  come  late  in  the 
educational  development  of  the  youth,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  science  is  only  a  human 
way  of  looking  at  a  subject.  There  is  no 
natural  science,  but  there  has  arisen  a  science 
of  natural  things.  At  first  the  interest  in 
nature  is  an  affair  of  the  heart,  and  this  atti- 
tude should  never  be  stifled,  much  less  elim- 
inated. When  the  interest  passes  from  the 
heart  to  the  head,  nature-love  has  given  way  to 
science.  Fortunately,  it  can  always  remain  an 
affair  also  of  the  heart,  but  the  dry  teaching  of 
facts  alone  tends  to  divorce  the  two.  When 
we  begin  the  training  of  the  youth  by  the  teach- 
ing of  a  science  we  are  inverting  the  natural 
order.  A  rigidly  graded  and  systematic  body 
of  facts  kills  nature-study;  examinations  bury  it. 
Then  teach!  If  you  love  nature  and  have 
living  and  accurate  knowledge  of  some  small 
part  of  it,  teach!  Do  not  fear  your  scientific 
5 


66  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

reputation  if  you  feel  the  call  to  teach.  Your 
reputation  is  not  to  be  made  as  a  geologist  or 
zoologist  or  botanist,  but  as  a  leader.  When 
beginning  to  teach  birds,  think  more  of  the 
pupil  than  of  ornithology.  The  pupil's  mind 
and  sympathies  are  to  be  expanded:  the  science 
of  ornithology  is  not  to  be  extended;  the  science 
will  take  care  of  itself.  Remember  that  spirit 
is  more  important  than  information.  The 
teacher  who  thinks  first  of  his  subject  teaches 
science;  he  who  thinks  first  of  his  pupil  teaches 
nature-study.  With  your  whole  heart,  teach! 
Do  not  be  afraid  of  the  Integument-Man^ 


Nature-Study  with  Plants 

ALL  the  so-called  natural  sciences  are  con- 
tributing to  the  nature-study  movement. 
Plants  are  so  much  a  part  of  every  landscape, 
however,  we  have  such  constant  association  with 
them,  and  the  plant  material  is  so  easy  to  secure, 
that  they  afford  the  very  best  subjects  for  nature- 
study  work.  One  cannot  understand  the  world 
if  he  does  not  know  plants. 

The  methods  in  plant-study  show  a  dis- 
tinct development  in  pedagogical  ideas  which  it 
may  be  well  to  recapitulate.  One  can  make  out 
four  fairly  well  marked  stages  in  the  teaching 
of  plant  subjects. 

First,  was  the  effort  to  know  the  names  of 
plants  and  to  classify  the  kinds.  This  was  a 
direct  reflection  of  the  systematic  or  classifica- 
tory  studies  of  the  botanists.  The  external 
world  had  been  unknown  as  to  its  details,  and 
botanists  necessarily  attempted  inventories  of 
the  plant  kingdom.  Plants  must  be  collected 

67 


68  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

and  named.  From  this  impulse  arose  the 
herbarium  collecting,  a  method  of  teaching 
which  was  so  thoroughly  impressed  into  school 
methods  a  generation  or  two  ago  that  it  is  still 
troublesome  in  many  places. 

The  second  stage  in  plant-study  in  the 
American  schools  was  the  desire  to  know  the 
names  of  the  parts  of  plants.  It  came  with  the 
excellent  text-books  of  Asa  Gray  and  others,  in 
which  the  results  of  studies  in  organography, 
morphology  and  histology  were  organized  and 
defined.  These  books  were  nearly  as  rigid  in 
their  systems  and  methods  as  text-books  of 
physics;  and  the  pupil  recited  mostly  from  the 
book,  with  perhaps  some  accessory  observation 
on  plants. 

The  third  epoch  is  that  of  training  for  inde- 
pendent investigation.  In  very  recent  times, 
and  chiefly  since  the  death  of  Gray,  the  German 
laboratory  methods  have  been  widely  copied  in 
America  by  the  many  young  and  painstaking 
botanists  who  have  studied  abroad.  As  a  result 
there  are  many  high-schools  that  are  equipped 
with  microscopes  and  apparatus  that  would 


Nature-Study  with  Plants          69 

have  done  credit  to  a  college  or  university  a 
few  years  ago.  The  customary  laboratory 
method  is  a  distinct  advance  on  the  preceding 
methods  of  teaching  in  the  fact  that  the  pupil 
actually  studies  plants;  but  its  motive  and  point 
of  view  are  distinctly  wrong  for  the  elementary 
school  because  it  attempts  primarily  to  teach 
botany  rather  than  to  educate  the  pupil.  The 
field  of  view  is  also  very  narrow,  and  the  pupil's 
mind  is  likely  to  be  closed  to  nature  and  re- 
stricted in  its  range.  The  stage  of  the  micro- 
scope and  the  tables  of  the  laboratory  are  poor 
and  narrow  ranges  for  the  young  mind  when 
there  are  fields  and  gardens  adjacent.  The 
German  laboratory  method  is  no  doubt  quite 
perfect  for  the  training  of  investigators  and 
specialists,  but  it  lacks  the  inspiration  and  the 
educative  impulse  that  young  minds  need. 

The  fourth  stage  is  the  effort  to  know  the 
plant  as  a  complete  organism  living  its  own  life 
in  a  natural  way.  It  is  marked  by  a  new  and 
vital  plant  physiology.  In  the  beginning  of 
this  epoch  we  are  now  living. 


70  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Suggestions  for  plant  work 

The  pupil  should  come  to  the  study  of  plants 
and  animals  with  little  more  than  his  natural 
and  native  powers.  Study  with  the  compound 
microscope  is  a  specialization  to  be  made  when 
the  pupil  has  had  experience  and  when  his  judg- 
ment and  sense  of  relationships  are  trained. 

A  difficulty  in  the  teaching  of  plants  is  to 
determine  what  are  the  most  profitable  topics 
for  consideration.  Much  of  the  teaching  at- 
tempts to  go  too  far  and  the  subjects  have  no 
vital  connection  with  the  pupil's  life.  Good 
botanical  teaching  for  the  young  is  replete  with 
human  interest.  It  is  connected  with  the  com- 
mon associations. 

Plants  always  should  be  taught  by  the  "labo- 
ratory method" :  that  is,  the  pupil  should  work 
out  the  subjects  directly  from  the  specimens 
themselves;  but  I  should  want  it  understood 
that  the  best  "laboratory"  may  be  the  field,  and 
that  the  plants  are  to  be  studied  as  plants  rather 
than  as  dissected  pieces. 

Specimens  mean  more  to  the  pupil  when  he 


Nature-Study  with  Plants          71 

collects  them.  No  matter  how  commonplace  the 
subject,  a  specimen  will  vivify  it  and  fix  it  in 
the  pupil's  mind.  A  living,  growing  plant  is 
worth  a  score  of  herbarium  specimens. 

In  the  secondary  schools,  botany  should  be 
taught  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  pupil 
closer  to  the  world  with  which  he  lives,  of 
widening  his  horizon,  of  intensifying  his  hold 
on  life.  It  should  begin  with  familiar  plant 
forms  and  phenomena.  It  is  often  said  that 
the  high-school  pupil  should  begin  the  study  of 
botany  with  the  lowest  and  simplest  forms  of 
life.  This  is  wrong.  The  microscope  is  not 
an  introduction  to  nature.  It  is  said  that  the 
physiology  of  plants  can  be  best  understood  by 
beginning  with  the  lower  forms.  This  may  be 
true :  but  the  customary  technical  plant  physi- 
ology is  not  a  subject  for  the  beginner.  There 
are  better  ways  of  putting  the  beginner  into 
touch  with  physiology.  The  youth  is  by  nature 
a  generalist.  He  should  not  be  forced  to  be  a 
specialist. 

Just  what  kind  of  plant  or  animal  subjects 
should  be  taught  must  depend  (i)  on  the  de- 


72  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

sires  and  capabilities  of  the  teacher;  (2)  on  the 
place  in  which  the  school  is — whether  city  or 
country,  North  or  South,  prairie  or  mountain — 
for  it  is  important  that  the  subject  be  common 
and  have  relation  to  the  experiences  of  the 
pupils;  (3)  on  the  desires  of  the  pupils,  par- 
ticularly if  they  are  to  do  the  collecting;  (4) 
on  the  time  of  the  year. 

Whenever  possible,  let  the  pupil  first  come 
into  cognizance  of  the  plant  as  a  whole.  It  is 
well  to  choose  one  species  that  is  common  and 
familiar;  then  endeavor  to  determine  where  it 
grows,  why  it  grows  there,  how  it  is  modified  in 
different  circumstances.  If  it  is  a  dandelion, 
one  lesson  may  be  devoted  to  dandelions  in 
the  school-yard;  another  to  dandelions  in  the 
meadow;  another  to  dandelions  along  hard  and 
dry  roadsides;  another  to  dandelions  in  rich 
farmyards  and  gardens;  another  to  dandelions 
in  the  borders  of  woodlands.  Compare  the 
relative  abundance  of  dandelions  in  these  dif- 
ferent places:  why?  Do  the  plants  "look"  the 
same  in  these  different  places:  how  differ  and 
why?  (Note  the  size  and  form  of  plants,  rela- 


Nature-Study  with  Plants  73 

tive  number  of  leaves,  form  and  size  of  leaves, 
root  habit,  abundance  of  bloom,  length  of  flower 
stems.).  It  is  a  practice  in  some  schools  to  teach 
mathematics  by  means  of  dandelions,  on  the  mis- 
taken notion  that  nature-study  is  being  taught; 
putting  the  word  dandelion  into  problems, 
where  the  words  stone,  book,  box  or  knife  might 
just  as  well  be  used,  is  only  verbal  substitution 
and  will  have  little  effect  on  the  pupil's  relation 
to  dandelions  except  to  make  him  dislike  them. 
Having  known  one  kind  of  common  plant, 
the  pupil  may  well  study  plant  societies — how 
plants  live  together,  and  why.  Every  distinct 
or  separate  area  has  its  own  plant  society. 
There  is  one  association  for  the  hard-tramped 
door-yard — knotweed  and  broad-leaved  plantain 
with  interspersed  grass  and  dandelions;  one  for 
the  fence-row — briers  and  choke-cherries  and 
hiding  weeds ;  one  for  the  dry  open  field — wire- 
grass  and  mullein  and  scattered  docks;  one  for 
the  slattern  roadside — sweet  clover  and  rag- 
weed and  burdock;  one  for  the  meadow  swale 
— smartweed  and  pitchforks;  one  for  the  barn- 
yard— rank  pigweed  and  sprawling  barn-grass; 


74  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

one  for  the  dripping  rock-cliff — delicate  blue- 
bells and  hanging  ferns  and  grasses.  These 
categories  may  be  indefinitely  extended.  We 
all  know  the  plant  societies,  but  we  have  not 
thought  of  them. 

In  every  plant  society  there  is  one  dominant 
note :  it  is  the  individuality  of  one  kind  of  plant 
that  grows  most  abundantly  or  overtops  the 
others.  Certain  plant-forms  come  to  mind 
when  one  thinks  of  willows,  others  when  he 
thinks  of  an  apple  orchard,  still  others  when  he 
thinks  of  a  beech  forest.  The  farmer  may 
associate  "pussly"  with  cabbages  and  beets, 
but  not  with  wheat  and  oats.  He  associates 
cockle  with  wheat,  but  not  with  oats  or  corn. 
We  all  associate  dandelions  with  grassy  areas, 
but  not  with  burdocks  or  forests. 

It  is  impossible  to  open  one's  eyes  out-of- 
doors  outside  the  paved  streets  of  cities  without 
seeing  a  plant  society.  A  lawn  is  a  plant 
society.  It  may  contain  only  grass,  or  it  may 
contain  weeds  hidden  away  in  the  sward. 
What  weeds  remain  in  the  lawn?  Only  those 
that  can  withstand  the  mowing.  What  are 


Nature-Study  with  Plants          75 

they?  Let  a  bit  of  lawn  grow  as  it  will  for  a 
month  and  see  what  there  is  in  it.  A  swale,  a 
dry  hillside,  a  forest  of  maple,  a  forest  of  oak, 
a  forest  of  hemlock  or  pine,  a  weedy  yard,  a 
tangled  fence-row,  a  brook-side,  a  deep  quiet 
swamp,  a  lake  shore,  a  railroad,  a  river  bank, 
a  meadow,  a  pasture,  a  dusty  roadway — each 
has  its  characteristic  plants.  Even  in  the  win- 
ter one  may  find  these  societies — the  tall  plants 
still  asserting  themselves,  others  of  less  aspiring 
stature,  and  others  snuggling  just  under  the 
snow. 

Later,  special  attributes  or  forms  of  plants 
may  be  considered — forms  of  stems,  bark,  ways 
of  branching,  root  forms,  leaf  forms,  position 
and  size  of  leaves  with  reference  to  light, 
flower  forms,  falling  of  the  leaves,  germination, 
seed  dispersal,  pollination  (for  older  pupils), 
injuries  of  various  kinds  (as  by  snow,  ice,  wind, 
sun-scalding,  drought,  insects,  fungi,  browsing 
by  cattle),  simple  physiological  experiments  of 
many  kinds  (such  as  are  now  described  in  our 
best  text-books).  In  winter,  studies  may  be 
made  of  the  forms  of  trees  and  bushes  and  of 


76  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

persisting  weeds,  leaf-buds  and  fruit-buds,  bark 
forms,  preparation  for  spring,  tubers  and  bulbs, 
seed-sowing  and  germination,  struggle  for  exist- 
ence in  the  tree-top,  evergreens  and  how  they 
shed  their  leaves,  how  the  different  kinds  of 
trees  hold  the  snow,  where  the  herbs  and  ten- 
der things  are,  cones  and  seed  pods,  apples  and 
turnips  and  other  things  from  the  cellar,  knots 
and  knot-holes,  how  vines  hold  to  their  sup- 
ports, and  others.  These  subjects  are  intended 
only  as  suggestions  of  the  kind  of  work  that 
may  be  taken  up  with  profit. 

As  far  as  possible,  the  study  of  form  and 
function  should  go  together.  Correlate  what  a 
part  is  with  what  it  does.  What  is  this  part? 
What  is  its  office,  or  how  did  it  come  to  be? 
It  were  a  pity  to  teach  phyllotaxy  without  teach- 
ing light-relation :  it  were  an  equal  pity  to  teach 
light-relation  without  teaching  phyllotaxy. 

There  are  those  who  discourage  the  teaching 
of  plant  societies  until  the  pupil  is  well  grounded 
in  "physiology";  but  this,  again,  is  the  science- 
teaching  point  of  view.  Of  course  the  child 
cannot  understand  the  fundamental  reasons  for 


Nature-Study  with  Plants          77 

plant  association — I  wonder  whether  the  botan- 
ist does? — but  the  child  can  comprehend  the 
phenomena,  and  he  will  be  interested  in  them 
because  they  are  so  intimately  associated  with 
him  and  are  observable. 

There  are  those,  again,  who  say  that  such 
subjects  as  those  suggested  above  do  not  prepare 
the  pupil  to  enter  college.  My  reply  is  that 
the  elementary  schools  do  not  exist  for  the  sake 
of  the  college  or  the  university.  Those  that 
are  to  enter  college  are  a  small  and  special  class, 
and  they  may  receive  special  instruction. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  herbarium  stage  of 
plant-study  and  have  said  that  it  is  passing 
away.  It  is  perfectly  possible,  however,  to 
make  herbaria  without  in  any  way  lessening  the 
value  of  beginning  plant-work  (the  rather  in- 
creasing its  value),  but  the  herbarium  should 
be  a  result  of  the  work  rather  than  constitute 
the  work  itself.  After  the  pupil  has  come  to 
know  the  dandelion  or  a  plant  society  or  the 
flora  of  the  neighborhood,  he  will  do  well  to 
make  specimens;  these  specimens  will  be  a  part 
of  his  records. 


VI 

The  Growing  of  Plants  by  Children- The 
School-Garden 

ACTUALLY  to  grow  a  plant  is  to  come 
into  intimate  contact  with  a  specific  bit  of 
nature.  The  numbers  of  plants  that  we  grow, 
and  also  the  kinds  of  them,  increase  with  every 
generation.  The  intensity  of  our  plant-grow- 
ing, as  well  as  the  increasing  care  for  animals, 
is  coming  to  be  a  measure  of  our  interest  in  the 
world  about  us. 

Not  only  has  the  cultivation  of  plants  itself 
increased  our  contact  with  plants  and  with 
nature,  but,  in  connection  with  the  growth  of 
the  spirit  of  art,  of  sport,  and  of  suburbanism, 
it  has  taken  us  afield  and  has  impelled  us  to 
know  things  as  they  are  and  as  they  grow. 
The  modern  popularization  of  plant-knowledge 
is  probably  due  more  to  these  agencies  than  to 
the  progress  of  botany. 

There  are  many  practical  applications  to  the 
lives  of  children  and  to  the  home  that  may  be 

7* 


The  Growing  of  Plants  79 

made  from  a  knowledge  of  plants  and  horti- 
culture. This  knowledge  means  more  than 
mere  information  of  plants  themselves.  It  takes 
one  into  the  open  air.  It  enlarges  his  horizon. 
It  brings  him  into  contact  with  living  things. 
It  increases  his  hold  on  life.  All  these  facts 
were  well  understood  by  Froebel,  Pestalozzi, 
and  other  educational  reformers. 

It  is  important  that  one  does  not  assume  too 
much  when  beginning  plant-work  with  children. 
We  forget  that  things  which  fail  to  appeal  to 
us,  because  of  our  busy  lives  and  great  expe- 
rience, may  nevertheless  mean  very  much  to  the 
child.  Often  we  attempt  to  teach  the  child  so 
much  that  it  is  confused  and  nothing  makes  an 
impression.  An  interest  in  one  simple,  living 
problem  that  is  near  to  the  child's  life  is  worth 
a  whole  book  of  facts  about  nature. 

It  is  not  primarily  important  that  children 
know  the  names,  although  the  name  is  an  intro- 
duction to  a  plant  as  it  is  to  a  person.  The 
essential  point  is  that  there  should  be  plants 
about  the  home,  or  in  the  school  grounds,  or  in 
the  schoolhouse  windows.  Even  though  the 


8o  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

children  are  not  conscious  that  they  are  receiv- 
ing any  impression  from  these  plants,  neverthe- 
less the  very  presence  of  them  has  an  influence 
that  will  be  felt  in  later  life,  even  as  the  presence 
of  good  literature  and  furniture  and  the  associa- 
tion of  refined  surroundings  has  influence. 

I  dropped  a  seed  into  the  earth.  It 
grew,  and  the  plant  was  mine. 

It  was  a  wonderful  thing,  this  plant  of 
mine.  I  did  not  know  its  name,  and  the 
plant  did  not  bloom.  All  I  know  is  that 
I  planted  something  apparently  as  lifeless 
as  a  grain  of  sand  and  there  came  forth  a 
green  and  living  thing  unlike  the  seed, 
unlike  the  soil  in  which  it  stood,  unlike  the 
air  into  which  it  grew.  No  one  could  tell 
me  why  it  grew,  nor  how.  It  had  secrets 
all  its  own,  secrets  that  baffle  the  wisest 
men;  yet  this  plant  was  my  friend.  It 
faded  when  I  withheld  the  light,  it  wilted 
when  I  neglected  to  give  it  water,  it 
flourished  when  I  supplied  its  simple  needs. 
One  week  I  went  away  on  a  vacation,  and 


The  Growing  of  Plants  81 

when  I  returned  the  plant  was  dead;  and 

I  missed  it. 

Although  my  little  plant  had  died  so 

soon,  it  had  taught  me  a  lesson;  and  the 

lesson  is  that  it  is  worth  while  to  have  a 

plant. 

Provide  some  little  means  of  growing  plants, 
not  only  to  teach  how  to  grow  plants  them- 
selves, but  to  instruct  the  child  in  the  care  of 
things,  to  show  that  other  beings  besides  itself 
have  vicissitudes  and^lives  of  their  own,  and  to 
implant  the  germ  of  altruism — the  interest  in 
something  outside  of  oneself.  These  means  of 
growing  plants  should  be  simple.  A  pot,  a  box 
or  a  hotbed  may  be  sufficient.  Every  child 
should  have  the  handling  of  at  least  one  plant 
during  the  period  of  childhood.  One  plant 
cannot  be  handled  without  leaving  an  impres- 
sion on  the  life. 

The  love  of  plants  should  be  inculcated  in  the 
school.  It  can  usually  be  better  done  in  school 
than  at  home,  particularly  when  one  or  both 
of  the  parents  is  opposed  to  it  and  constantly 
discourages  the  child.  Even  when  the  parents 

6 


82  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

are  ready  and  competent,  the  teacher  may  be 
able  to  reach  the  children  more  effectively  than 
they.  In  nearly  every  school  it  is  possible  to 
have  a  few  plants  in  the  window.  They  may 
not  thrive,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  set  the  child- 
ren to  inquiring  why  they  do  not.  Sometimes 
the  poorest  plants  awaken  the  most  effort  and 
inquiry.  If  nothing  else  will  thrive,  a  beet  will. 
Secure  a  good  fresh  beet-root  from  the  cellar. 
Plant  it  in  a  box  or  tin  can.  Surprisingly  quick 
it  will  throw  out  clean  bright  leaves.  The  thick 
root  will  hold  moisture  from  Friday  to  Monday. 
A  desire  for  school-gardens  is  gradually 
taking  shape.  This  movement  must  grow  and 
ripen ;  it  cannot  be  perfected  in  a  day.  Through 
the  centuries  there  have  been  few  school-gardens : 
we  must  not  expect  to  overcome  the  lack  at  once. 
The  movement  has  not  been  aided  much,  if  at 
all,  by  those  who  have  "complete"  schemes  for 
gardens  for  the  district  schools.  Such  schemes 
may  be  advisable  later.  Start  the  work  by 
suggesting  that  the  school-grounds  be  cleaned 
or  "slicked  up."  Take  one  step  at  a  time. 
The  propaganda  for  school-gardens  must  have 


The  Growing  of  Plants  83 

relation  to  the  economic  and  social  conditions 
under  which  the  school  exists. 

There  is  some  confusion  as  to  the  objects  of 
school-ground  improvement.  The  purposes 
may  be  analyzed  as  follows : 

(1)  Ornamenting    the    grounds,    com- 
prising   (a)    cleaning   and   tidying   them, 
(b)  securing  a  lawn,   (c)  planting.     This 
is  always  the  first  thing  to  be  done.     It 
stands    for    thrift,    cleanliness,     comfort, 
beauty,  progressiveness. 

(2)  Establishing  a  collection  to  supply 
material  for  nature-study  and  class  work. 

(3)  Making  a  garden  for  the  purpose 
of  (a)  supplying  material  (as  in  No.  2), 
(b)    affording  manual-training,  object  les- 
son work,  and  instruction  in  plant-growing. 

(4)  Providing  a  test  ground  or  experi- 
ment garden  where  new  varieties  may  be 
tried,   fertilizer  and  spraying  experiments 
conducted,  and  other  definite  studies  un- 
dertaken. 

These  purposes  fall  into  two  main  groups: 
(i)  The  improvement  or  adornment  of  the 


84  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

grounds;  (2)  the  making  of  distinct  gardens 
for  purposes  of  direct  instruction,  or  school- 
gardening  proper.  Much  of  the  current  dis- 
cussion does  not  distinguish  these  two  ideals, 
and  thereby  arises  some  of  the  loss  of  effort  and 
effectiveness  in  the  movement. 

Improvement  of  the  school- grounds 

Every  school-ground  should  be  picked  up, 
cleaned  up  and  made  fit  for  children  to  see. 
There  are  three  stages  in  the  improving  of 
any  ground:  Cleaning  up;  grading  and  seed- 
ing; planting. 

To  improve  the  school-grounds  should  be  a 
matter  of  neighborhood  pride.  It  is  an  expres- 
sion of  the  people's  interest  in  the  things  that 
are  the  people's.  We  are  ashamed  when  our 
homes  are  not  fit  and  attractive  for  children  to 
live  in;  but  who  cares  if  at  the  school  the  fence 
is  tumble-down,  the  wood  or  coal  scattered  over 
the  yard,  the  clapboards  loose,  the  chimneys 
awry,  the  trees  broken,  the  outhouses  sagged 
and  yawning? 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  arouse  the  public 


The  Growing  of  Plants  85 

conscience.  Begin  with  the  children.  As  soon 
as  they  are  directed  to  see  the  conditions  they 
will  believe  what  they  see.  They  are  not  pre- 
judiced. They  will  talk  about  it:  teacher, 
mother,  father  will  hear. 

The  next  step  is  to  "clean  up."  Do  not 
begin  with  any  ideal  plan  of  landscape-garden- 
ing improvement  to  be  carried  out  at  once — 
not  unless  some  one  person  is  willing  to  do  all 
the  work  and  bear  all  the  expense  out  of  his 
public  spirit;  and  this  would  be  unfortunate, 
because  most  of  the  value  in  improving  a 
ground  is  to  interest  the  children  in  the  work. 
Develop  the  children's  enthusiasm — it  is  easy 
to  do — in  removing  stones  and  litter  and  rub- 
bish, in  filling  the  holes,  piling  the  wood,  raking 
the  grounds.  If  one  school  year  were  required 
to  accomplish  this  work  alone  it  would  be  time 
well  used.  Children  and  teachers  have  many 
interests.  We  are  likely  to  expect  too  much  of 
them. 

The  cleaning  up  once  done,  and  the  civic 
pride  aroused  to  the  pitch  of  keeping  it  done, 
the  next  step  is  to  make  a  base  or  foundation 


86  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

upon  which  all  the  gardening  or  planting  fea- 
tures are  to  stand:  the  land  must  be  graded. 
In  some  cases  the  soil  must  be  removed  and  new 
earth  put  in  its  place,  for  the  soil  about  a  school- 
house  is  very  likely  to  be  poor  sand  or  clay,  or 
a  mixture  with  building  material  and  other  rub- 
bish; but  in  general  this  labor  will  not  be  neces- 
sary if  only  a  lawn  and  ornamental  planting 
are  desired.  In  some  places  a  lawn  is  imprac- 
ticable, but  a  good  and  even  earth  surface  should 
always  be  secured.  The  early  spring  is  the 
season  in  which  to  do  all  this  shaping  and  seed- 
ing of  the  land.  The  spring  fever  is  on  and 
enthusiasm  is  new-born.  If  the  school  is  in  the 
country,  the  farmers  can  be  interested  to  do  the 
heavy  work.  If  the  subject  has  been  well  dis- 
cussed in  the  school  for  some  weeks  or  months, 
it  should  not  be  difficult  to  organize  the  farmers 
into  a  "bee"  to  grade,  till  and  seed  the  ground. 
There  is  always  at  least  one  energetic  man  in 
the  community  who  is  ready  to  take  the  lead 
in  such  movements  as  this.  Much  of  the  value 
of  improving  the  school-ground  lies  in  its  arous- 
ing of  public  interest. 


The  Growing  of  Plants  87 

The  next  year,  plant  Let  the  matter  be 
discussed  in  school.  Ask  the  children  to  make 
plans.  When  the  time  is  ready,  choose  the 
simplest  plan  that  seems  to  fulfil  the  require- 
ments. It  is  well  to  get  expert  advice  on  this 
plan.  Remember  that  during  a  large  part  of 
the  year  the  school-ground  will  be  practically 
without  care ;  the  planting  must  be  able  to  main- 
tain itself,  if  necessary.  Leave  the  centers 
open.  Throw  the  planting  mostly  to  the  bor- 
ders or  margins.  Be  careful  not  to  have  scat- 
tered effects  in  planting.  Have  the  planting  as 
little  and  as  simple  as  possible  and  yet  accom- 
plish the  desired  results.  Avoid  all  elaborate 
designs  in  bedding.  Leave  ample  space  for 
playgrounds.  Cover  the  out-buildings  with 
vines,  and  screen  them  with  bushes  and  trees. 
Use  chiefly  of  hardy  and  well-known  trees  and 
shrubs  and  herbs.  Aim  to  have  the  ground 
interesting  because  it  appeals  to  the  onlooker 
as  a  picture  and  not  as  a  collection  of  plants. 

The  school-garden 
The  real  school-garden  is  for  direct  instruc- 


88  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

tion.  It  is  an  outdoor  laboratory.  It  is  a  part 
of  the  school  equipment,  as  books,  blackboards, 
charts  and  apparatus  are.  The  school-garden 
is  not  adapted  to  all  schools;  or,  to  speak  more 
correctly,  not  all  schools  are  yet  adapted  to  the 
school-garden,  any  more  than  they  are  all  ready 
for  an  equipment  in  physics  or  chemistry.  All 
grounds  can  be  improved  and  embellished;  we 
shall  be  glad  when  all  schools  will  also  have  a 
school-garden.  The  making  of  a  definite  garden 
is  an  epoch  in  the  life  of  each  school :  it  marks 
the  progress  of  the  school  in  educational  ideals. 
The  school-garden  should  have  a  special  area 
set  aside  for  it,  as  any  other  garden,  room 
or  laboratory  has.  Its  prime  motive  is  not  to 
be  ornamental,  but  to  be  useful.  The  garden 
should  be  a  good  garden,  if  it  is  to  do  its  best 
work.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  it  be  perfect 
from  the  gardener's  standpoint,  but  that  it  be 
carefully  planned  and  the  ground  put  in  good 
condition.  The  children  should  do  the  garden- 
ing; a  gardener  or  teacher  should  not  take  care 
of  the  children's  beds  for  them.  (For  a  descrip- 
tion of  actual  school-garden  work,  see  p.  205.)] 


The  Growing  of  Plants  89 

A  school-garden  has  a  large  range  of  use- 
fulness. It  supplants,  or,  at  least,  supplements 
mere  book  training;  presents  real  problems, 
with  many  interacting  influences,  affording  a 
base  for  the  study  of  all  nature,  thereby  develop- 
ing the  creative  faculties  and  encouraging  nat- 
ural enthusiasm;  puts  the  child  into  touch  and 
sympathy  with  its  own  realm;  develops  manual 
dexterity;  begets  regard  for  labor;  conduces  to 
health;  expands  the  moral  instincts  by  making 
a  truthful  and  intimate  presentation  of  natural 
phenomena  and  affairs;  trains  in  accuracy  and 
directness  of  observation;  stimulates  the  love  of 
nature;  appeals  to  the  art-sense;  kindles  interest 
in  ownership;  teaches  garden-craft;  evolves  civic 
pride;  sometimes  affords  a  means  of  earning 
money;  brings  teacher  and  pupil  into  closer 
personal  touch;  works  against  vandalism;  aids 
discipline  by  allowing  natural  exuberance  to 
work  off;  arouses  spontaneous  interest  in  the 
school  on  the  part  of  both  pupils  and  parents; 
sets  ideals  for  the  home,  thereby  establishing 
one  more  bond  of  connection  between  the  school 
and  the  community.1 

'From  "Outlook  to  Nature,"  p.  129  (Rev.  Ed.) 


9O  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

The  larger  relations 

There  is  a  broader  significance  to  the  grow- 
ing of  plants,  as  indicated  in  the  foregoing 
catalogue,  than  that  associated  with  mere  gar- 
den-making or  with  the  furnishing  of  school- 
room material  alone.  There  are  social  and 
national  aspects.  Children  in  the  home  and 
school  should  be  interested  in  horticulture  and 
agriculture  as  a  means  of  introduction  to  nature. 
Farming  introduces  the  human  element  into 
nature  and  thereby  makes  it  more  vivid  in  the 
child's  mind.  More  than  half  the  people  of 
the  United  States  live  outside  the  cities.  More 
persons  are  engaged  in  farming  than  in  any 
other  single  occupation.  The  children  in  the 
schools  are  taught  much  about  the  cities,  but 
little  about  the  farming  country.  The  child 
should  be  taught  something  from  the  farmer's 
point  of  view,  and  the  teaching  of  gardening  is 
one  of  the  ways  in  which  to  begin.  This  will 
broaden  the  child's  horizon  and  quicken  his 
sympathies.  Every  person  is  now  supposed  to 
know  something  of  the  country.  He  will  spend 
part  of  his  vacations  therein.  The  more  knowl- 


The  Growing  of  Plants  91 

edge  he  has  of  farming  methods  the  more  these 
vacations  will  mean.  It  is  not  necessary,  and 
perhaps  not  even  important,  that  the  child  be 
taught  these  subjects  with  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing him  a  farmer,  but  rather  as  a  means  of 
education  and  of  interest  to  him  in  the  out-of- 
doors. 

There  -must  be  a  greater  interest  in  parks 
and  public  gardens.  These  institutions  have 
now  come  to  be  a  part  of  our  civic  life.  They 
no  longer  need  apology.  We  build  parks  in 
the  same  spirit  that  we  build  good  streets  and 
make  sanitary  improvements;  but  the  park 
should  be  more  than  a  mere  display  of  garden- 
ing. It  should  have  an  intimate  relation  with 
the  lives  of  the  people.  All  parks  should  be 
open  to  nature-study  teachers,  at  least  on  cer- 
tain days.  There  should  also  be  children's 
days  in  the  parks.  In  some  places  the  park  may 
grow  specimens  for  the  school.  In  large  cities 
some  of  the  common  vegetables  and  farm  crops 
may  be  grown  in  small  areas  at  one  side  of  the 
park.  The  tendency,  perhaps,  is  to  make  our 
parks  too  exotic,  and  to  give  relatively  too 


92  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

much   attention   to  mere  roads,   statuary,   and 
architecture. 

The  general  appearance  and  attractiveness  of 
the  home  can  be  greatly  improved  by  simple 
gardening.  The  perfect  garden,  from  the  gar- 
dener's point  of  view,  may  not  be  the  most 
useful  or  most  decorative  one.  The  garden 
should  be  so  common  and  so  easy  to  make  as  to 
become  a  part  of  the  child-life. 


VII 

Nature-Study  Agriculture 

THE  nature-study  idea  is  bound  to  have  a 
fundamental  influence  in  carrying  a  vital 
educational  impulse  to  farmers.  The  accus- 
tomed methods  of  education  are  less  applicable 
to  farmers  than  to  any  other  people,  and  yet 
countrymen  are  nearly  half  our  population. 
The  greatest  of  the  unsolved  problems  of  edu- 
cation is  how  to  reach  the  farmer.  He  must  be 
reached  on  his  own  ground.  The  methods  and 
the  results  must  suit  his  needs.  The  ultimate 
test  of  good  extension  work  will  be  its  ability 
to  reach  into  the  remotest  districts. 

We  have  failed  to  reach  the  farmer  effectively 
because  we  still  persist  in  employing  old-time 
and  academic  methods.  Historically,  the  com- 
mon public  school  is  a  product  of  the  uni- 
versity and  college.  "The  greatest  achievement 
of  modern  education,"  writes  W.  H.  Payne, 
"is  the  gradation  and  correlation  of  schools, 
whereby  the  ladder  of  learning  is  let  down 

9$ 


94  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

from  the  university  to  secondary  schools,  and 
from  these  to  the  schools  of  the  people.'*  This 
origin  of  "the  schools  of  the  people"  from  the 
university  explains  why  it  is  that  these  schools 
are  so  unrelated  to  the  life  of  the  pupil,  and  so 
unreal;  they  are  exotic  and  unnatural.  If  any 
man  were  to  find  himself  in  a  country  devoid  of 
schools  and  were  to  be  set  the  task  of  originat- 
ing and  organizing  a  school  system,  he  would 
almost  unconsciously  introduce  some  subjects 
that  would  be  related  to  the  habits  of  the  peo- 
ple and  to  the  welfare  of  the  community. 
Being  freed  from  traditions,  he  would  teach 
something  of  the  plants  and  animals  and  fields 
and  people  and  affairs. 

So  long  have  we  taught  the  text-book  routine 
that  we  do  not  seem  to  think  that  there  may  be 
other  and  better  means.  We  may  allow  the 
Greek  idea  of  education  for  culture,  but  we 
must  have  other  education  along  with  it.  It 
is  possible  to  acquire  culture  at  the  same  time 
that  we  acquire  power.  Education  for  culture 
alone  tends  to  isolate  the  individual;  education 
for  sympathy  with  one's  environment  tends  to 


Nature-Study  Agriculture          95 

make  the  individual  an  integral  part  of  the 
activities  and  progress  of  his  time.  At  all 
events,  there  must  be  as  great  possibility  for 
culture  in  the  nature-studies  as  there  is  in  the 
customary  subjects  of  the  common  schools. 
My  plea  is  that  new  educational  methods  must 
be  employed  before  we  can  really  reach  the 
farming  communities.  I  am  not  insisting  that  — • 
we  make  more  farmers,  but  that  we  relate  the 
rural  school  to  the  lives  of  people  and  that  we 
cease  to  unmake  farmers. 

Man  is  a  land  animal  and  his  connection  with 
the  earth,  the  soil,  the  plants,  animals  and  at- 
mosphere is  intimate  and  fundamental.  This 
earth-relationship  is  best  expressed  in  agricul- 
ture,— not  agriculture  merely  as  a  livelihood, 
but  as  the  expression  of  the  essential  relationship 
of  man  to  his  planet  home^  Agriculture  affords 
a  primary  educational  course  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  race.  If  this  kind  of  instruction  is 
really  to  come  and  to  be  effective,  nature-study 
agriculture  is  not  to  be  added  to  the  school  work 
so  much  as  to  grow  out  of  it  as  a  redirection  or 
reconstruction  of  it.  The  best  agriculture  is 


96  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

a   perfect   adaptation   of   man   to   his   natural 
environment. 

A  point  of  view  on  the  rural-school  problem 

A  fundamental  necessity  to  successful  living 
is  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  nature-environ- 
ment in  which  one  is  placed.  This  sympathy  is 
born  of  good  knowledge  of  the  objects  and 
phenomena  in  the  environment.  The  process 
of  acquiring  this  knowledge  and  of  arriving  at 
this  sympathy  is  now  popularly  called  nature- 
study. 

The  nature-study  process  and  point  of  view 
should  be  a  part  of  the  work  of  all  schools, 
because  schools  train  persons  to  live.  Particu- 
larly should  it  be  a  part  of  rural  schools,  because 
the  nature-environment  is  the  controlling  con- 
dition for  all  persons  who  live  on  the  land. 
There  is  no  effective  living  in  the  open  country 
unless  the  mind  is  sensitive  to  the  objects  and 
phenomena  of  the  open  country;  and  no 
thoroughly  good  farming  is  possible  without 
this  same  knowledge  and  outlook.  Good 
farmers  are  good  naturalists. 


Nature-Study  Agriculture          97 

Inasmuch  as  this  nature-sympathy  is  funda- 
mental to  all  good  farming,  the  first  duty  of 
any  movement  is  to  establish  an  intelligent  inter- 
est in  the  whole  environment, — in  fields  and 
weather,  trees,  birds,  fish,  frogs,  soils,  domestic 
animals.  It  would  be  incorrect  to  begin  first 
with  the  specific  agricultural  phases  of  the  en- 
vironment, for  the  agricultural  phase  (as  any 
other  special  phase)  needs  a  foundation  and  a 
base:  it  is  only  one  part  of  a  point  of  view. 
Moreover,  to  begin  with  a  discussion  of  the 
so-called  "useful"  or  "practical"  objects,  as 
many  advise,  would  be  to  teach  falsely,  for,  as 
these  objects  are  only  part' of  the  environment, 
to  single  them  out  and  neglect  the  other  subjects 
would  result  in  a  partial  and  untrue  outlook  to 
nature;  in  fact,  it  is  just  this  partial  and  pre- 
judiced outlook  that  we  need  to  correct  (p.  32) . 

The  colleges  of  agriculture  have  spread  the 
nature-study  movement.  Such  work  was  begun 
as  early  as  1895  and  1896  by  the  College  of 
Agriculture  of  Cornell  University.  The  col- 
leges would  have  been  glad  if  there  had  been 
sufficient  nature-study  sentiment  to  have  enabled 
7 


98  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

them  to  emphasize  the  purely  agricultural 
phases  in  the  schools;  but  this  sentiment  had  to 
be  created  or  quickened.  At  first  it  was  impos- 
sible to  secure  much  hearing  for  the  agricul- 
tural subjects.  Year  by  year  such  hearing  has 
been  more  readily  given,  and  the  work  has  been 
turned  in  this  direction  as  rapidly  as  the  con- 
ditions would  admit, — for  it  is  the  special  mis- 
sion of  an  agricultural  college  to  extend  the 
agricultural  applications  of  nature-study. 

In  making  these  statements  I  have  it  in  mind 
that  the  common  schools  do  not  teach  trades 
and  professions.  I  would  not  approach  the 
subject  primarily  from  an  occupational  point  of 
view,  but  from  the  educational  and  spiritual; 
that  is,  the  man  should  know  his  work  and  his 
environment.  The  mere  giving  of  information 
about  agricultural  objects  and  practices  can  have 
very  little  good  result  with  children.  The 
spirit  is  worth  more  than  the  letter.  Some  of 
the  hard  and  dry  tracts  on  farming  would  only 
add  one  more  task  to  the  teacher  and  the  pupil 
if  they  were  introduced  to  the  school,  making 
the  new  subject  in  time  as  distasteful  as  arith- 


Nature-Study  Agriculture          99 

metic  and  grammar  often  are.  In  this  new 
agricultural  work  we  need  to  be  exceedingly 
careful  that  we  do  not  go  too  far,  and  that  we 
do  not  lose  our  sense  of  relationships  and  values. 
Introducing  the  word  agriculture  into  the 
scheme  of  studies  means  very  little;  what  is 
taught,  and  particularly  how  it  is  taught,  is  of 
the  greatest  moment.  I  hope  that  no  country- 
life  teaching  will  be  so  narrow  as  to  put  only 
technical  farm  subjects  before  the  pupil. 

We  need  also  to  be  careful  not  to  introduce 
subjects  merely  because  practical  grown-up 
farmers  think  that  the  subjects  are  useful  and 
therefore  should  be  taught.  Farming  is  one 
thing  and  teaching  is  another.  What  appeals 
to  the  man  may  not  appeal  to  the  child.  What 
is  most  useful  to  the  man  may  or  may  not  be  most 
useful  in  training  the  mind  of  a  pupil  in  school. 
The  teacher,  as  well  as  the  farmer,  must  always 
be  consulted  in  respect  to  the  content  and  the 
method  of  teaching  agricultural  subjects.  We 
must  always  be  alert  to  see  that  the  work  has 
living  interest  to  the  pupil,  rather  than  to  grown- 
ups* and  to  be  on  guard  that  it  does  not  become 


ioo  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

lifeless.  Probably  the  greatest  mistake  that 
any  teacher  makes  is  in  supposing  that  what  is 
interesting  to  him  is  therefore  interesting  to  his 
pupils. 

It  has  recently  been  said  that  the  nature- 
study  idea  must  disappear  in  rural  schools  and 
that  agriculture  must  take  its  place.  Nothing 
can  be  farther  from  the  mark.  Nature-study 
may  be  directed  more  strongly  in  agricultural 
applications,  as  the  schools  are  ready  for  it,  but 
the  process  is  still  nature-study.  All  good  agri- 
cultural work  in  the  grades  must  be  nature- 
study. 

All  agricultural  subjects  must  be  taught  by 
the  nature-study  method,  which  is:  to  see  accu- 
rately; to  reason  correctly  from  what  is  seen;  to 
establish  a  bond  of  sympathy  with  the  object  or 
phenomenon  that  is  studied.  One  cannot  see 
accurately  unless  one  has  the  object  itself.  If 
the  pupil  studies  corn,  he  should  have  corn  in 
his  hands  and  he  should  make  his  own  observa- 
tions and  draw  his  own  conclusions;  if  he  studies 
cows,  he  should  make  his  observations  on  cows 
and  not  on  what  some  one  has  said  about  cows. 


Nature-Study  Agriculture  101 
So  far  as  possible,  all  nature-study  work  should 
be  conducted  in  the  open,  where  the  objects  are. 
If  specimens  are  needed,  let  the  pupils  collect 
them.  See  that  observations  are  made  on  the 
crops  in  the  field  as  well  as  on  the  specimens. 
Nature-study  is  an  out-door  process:  the  school- 
room should  be  merely  an  adjunct  to  the  out- 
of-doors,  rather  than  the  out-of-doors  an  adjunct 
to  the  schoolroom,  as  it  is  at  present  (pp.  40, 
56,  70). 

A  laboratory  of  living  things  is  a  necessary 
part  of  the  best  nature-study  work.  It  is  custo- 
mary to  call  this  laboratory  a  school-garden. 
We  need  to  distinguish  different  types  of  garden 
(page  83)  :  (i)  The  ornamental  or  planted 
grounds;  this  should  be  a  part  of  every  school 
enterprise,  for  the  premises  should  be  attractive 
to  pupils  and  they  should  stand  as  an  example 
in  the  community.  (2)  The  formal  plat-gar- 
den, in  which  a  variety  of  plants  is  grown  and 
the  pupils  are  taught  the  usual  handicraft;  this 
is  the  prevailing  kind  of  school-gardening. 
(3)  The  problem-garden,  in  which  certain 
specific  questions  are  to  be  studied,  in  much  the 
spirit  that  problems  are  studied  in  the  indoor 


102  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

laboratories;  these  are  little  known  at  present, 
but  their  number  will  increase  as  school-work 
develops  in  efficiency;  in  rural  districts,  for 
example,  such  direct  problems  as  the  rust  of 
beans,  the  blight  of  potatoes,  the  testing  of 
varieties  of  oats,  the  study  of  species  of  grasses, 
the  observation  of  effect  of  fertilizers,  may  well 
be  undertaken  when  conditions  are  favorable, 
and  it  will  matter  very  little  whether  the  area 
has  the  ordinary  "garden"  appearance.  In 
time,  ample  grounds  will  be  as  much  a  part  of 
a  school  as  the  buildings  or  seats  now  are. 
Some  of  the  school-gardening  work  may  be  done 
at  the  homes  of  the  pupils,  and  in  many  cases 
this  is  the  only  kind  that  is  now  possible;  but 
the  farther  removed  the  laboratory,  the  less 
direct  the  teaching. 

To  introduce  agriculture  into  any  elementary 
rural  school,  it  is  first  necessary  to  have  a  willing 
teacher.  The  trustees  should  be  able  to  settle 
this  point.  The  second  step  is  to  begin  to  study 
the  commonest  and  most  available  object  con- 
cerning which  the  teacher  has  any  kind  of 
knowledge.  The  third  step  is  to  begin  to  con- 


Nature-Study  Agriculture         103 

nect  or  organize  these  observations  into  a 
plan  or  system.  This  simple  beginning  made, 
the  work  ought  to  grow.  It  may  or  may 
not  be  necessary  to  organize  a  special  class  in 
agriculture;  the  geography,  arithmetic,  reading, 
manual-training,  nature-study  and  other  work 
may  be  modified  or  re-directed.  It  is  possible 
to  teach  the  state  elementary  syllabus  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  a  good  agricultural  training. 

In  the  high-school,  the  teacher  should  be  well 
trained  in  some  special  line  of  science;  and  if  he 
has  had  a  course  in  a  college  of  agriculture  he 
should  be  much  better  adapted  to  the  work. 
Here  the  teaching  may  partake  more  of  the 
indoor  laboratory  method,  although  it  is  pos- 
sible that  our  insistence  on  formal  laboratory 
work  in  both  schools  and  colleges  has  been  car- 
ried too  far.  In  the  high-school,  a  separate 
and  special  class  in  agriculture  would  better  be 
organized,  and  this  means,  of  course,  the  giving 
up  of  something  else  by  the  pupil. 

In  many  districts  the  sentiment  for  agricul- 
tural work  in  the  schools  will  develop  very 
slowly.  Usually,  however,  there  is  one  person 


IO4  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

in  the  community  who  is  alive  to  the  importance 
of  these  new  questions.  If  this  person  has  tact 
and  persistence,  he  ought  to  be  able  to  get  some- 
thing started.  Here  is  an  opportunity  for  the 
young  farmer  to  exert  influence  and  to  develop 
leadership.  He  should  not  be  impatient  if 
results  seem  to  come  slowly.  The  work  is  new: 
it  is  best  that  it  grow  slowly  and  quietly  and 
prove  itself  as  it  goes.  Through  the  grange, 
reading-club,  fruit-growers'  society,  creamery 
association,  or  other  organization  the  sentiment 
may  be  encouraged  and  formulated;  a  teacher 
may  also  be  secured  who  is  in  sympathy  with 
making  the  school  a  real  expression  of  the 
affairs  of  the  community;  the  school  premises 
may  be  put  in  order  and  made  effective;  now 
and  then  the  pupils  may  be  taken  to  good  farms 
and  be  given  instruction  by  the  farmer  himself; 
good  farmers  may  be  called  to  the  schoolhouse 
on  occasion  to  explain  how  they  raise  potatoes 
or  irrigate  their  land.  A  very  small  start  will 
grow  by  accretion  if  the  persons  who  are  inter- 
ested in  it  do  not  lose  heart;  and  in  five  years 


Nature-Study  Agriculture  105 

every  one  will  be  astonished  at  the  progress  that 
has  been  made. 

The  prospect 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  a  marvelous 
application  of  knowledge  and  research  to  agri- 
cultural practice.  We  have  exerted  every  effort 
to  increase  the  productiveness  and  efficiency  of 
the  farm,  and  we  have  entered  a  new  era  in 
farming — a  fact  that  will  be  more  apparent  in 
the  years  to  come  than  it  is  now.  The  burden 
of  the  new  agricultural  teaching  has  been  largely 
the  augmentation  of  material  wealth.  Hand  in 
hand  with  this  new  teaching,  however,  should 
go  an  awakening  to  the  less  tangible  but  equally 
powerful  things  of  the  spirit.  More  attractive 
and  more  comfortable  farm  homes,  better  read- 
ing, more  responsive  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
the  community  and  the  events  of  the  world, 
closer  touch  with  the  common  objects  about 
him — these  must  be  looked  to  before  agricul- 
ture really  can  be  revived.  Appeal  to  greater 
efficiency  of  the  farm  alone  cannot  permanently 
relieve  the  agricultural  status.  This  is  all  well 


106  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

illustrated  in  the  attitude  of  children  toward  the 
farm.  In  a  certain  rural  school  in  New  York 
state  of  say  forty-five  pupils,  I  asked  all  those 
children  that  lived  on  farms  to  raise  their 
hands :  all  hands  but  one  went  up.  I  then  asked 
all  those  who  wanted  to  live  on  the  farm  to 
raise  their  hands:  only  that  one  hand  went  up. 
Now,  these  children  were  too  young  to  feel  the 
appeal  of  more  bushels  of  potatoes  or  more 
pounds  of  wool,  yet  they  had  this  early  formed 
their  dislike  of  the  farm.  Some  of  this  dislike 
is  probably  only  an  ill-defined  desire  for  a  mere 
change,  such  as  one  finds  in  all  occupations,  but 
I  am  convinced  that  the  larger  part  of  it  was 
a  genuine  dissatisfaction  with  farm  life.  These 
children  felt  that  their  lot  was  less  attractive 
than  that  of  other  children;  I  concluded  that  a 
flower-garden  and  a  pleasant  yard  would  do 
more  to  content  them  with  living  on  the  farm 
than  ten  more  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre. 
Of  course,  it  is  the  greater  and  better  yield  that 
will  enable  the  farmer  to  supply  these  amenities ; 
but  at  the  same  time  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  increased  yield  does  not  itself  awaken  a 


Nature-Study  Agriculture          (107 

desire  for  them.  I  should  make  farm  life 
interesting  before  I  make  it  profitable. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  all  these  new 
ideals  are  bound  to  result  in  a  complete  revolu- 
tion or  re-direction  of  our  current  methods  of 
rural  school-teaching.  The  time  cannot  be  very 
far  distant  when  we  shall  have  systems  of 
common  schools  that  are  based  on  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  serving  the  people  in  the  very 
lives  that  the  people  are  to  lead.  In  many 
places  there  are  strong  protests  against  the  old 
order;  in  other  places  there  are  distinct  begin- 
nings of  the  new  order. 

The  beginnings  of  the  new  order  are  seen  in 
the  nature-study  movement,  the  establishing  of 
special  agricultural  schools,  the  strong  agitation 
for  county  or  district  industrial  schools,  the 
spread  of  reading-courses,  the  rise  of  pupils' 
gardens,  the  extension  work  of  the  colleges  of 
agriculture,  the  general  awakening  of  rural 
communities.  Books  and  methods  are  now 
derived  for  town  schools  rather  than  for  coun- 
try schools;  the  real  texts  for  the  rural  schools 
are  just  now  beginning  to  appear,  and  they  repre- 


io8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

sent  a  new  type  of  school  literature.  In  the 
future,  the  text-book  is  to  have  relatively  less 
influence  than  in  the  past.  We  have  been  living 
in  a  text-book  and  museum  age.  All  this  old 
method  is  not  to  be  complained  of.  The  fact 
that  so  many  new  subjects  and  propaganda  are 
coming  in  shows  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  an 
evolution :  we  are  in  the  making  of  progress. 

Nature-study  teaching  may  seem  to  be  an 
indirect  way  of  reaching  the  farmer;  but  it  is 
not.  It  is  direct  because  it  strikes  at  the  very 
root  of  the  difficulty.  Nature-study  teaches  the 
importance  of  actually  seeing  the  thing  and  then 
of  trying  to  understand  it.  The  person  who 
really  knows  a  pussy-willow  will  know  how  to 
become  acquainted  with  a  potato-bug.  He  will 
introduce  himself.  One  of  the  most  significant 
comments  I  have  heard  on  nature-study  work 
came  from  a  country  teacher  who  said  that 
because  she  had  taught  it,  her  pupils  were  no 
longer  ashamed  of  being  farmers'  children.  If 
only  that  much  can  be  accomplished  for  each 
country  child,  the  result  will  be  enough  for  one 
generation.  What  can  be  done  for  the  country 


Nature-Study  Agriculture          109 

child  can  be  done,  in  a  different  sphere,  for  the 
city  child.  Fifty  years  hence  the  result  will 
be  seen. 

A  nature-study  movement  alone  is  not  suf- 
ficient to  awaken  and  reconstruct  the  agricul- 
tural interests.  There  should  be  coordinate 
efforts  outside  the  schools.  It  particularly  de- 
volves on  the  colleges  of  agriculture  to  develop 
good  extension  teaching.  The  extension  move- 
ment is  already  under  way,  several  immediate 
causes  combining  to  make  it  imperative,  as 
(i)  the  people  are  ready  for  the  work:  they 
want  to  learn;  (2)  certain  persons  are  ready 
to  do  the  work:  they  want  to  teach;  (3)  the 
states  appropriate  money:  the  appropriations 
are  made  because  work  is  done.  Of  these 
factors,  the  money  is  the  least.  No  institution 
is  so  poor  that  something  cannot  be  done  if  only 
the  first  three  requisites  are  present.  Time  by 
time,  perhaps  little  by  little,  the  money  will 
come.  The  work  must  be  born,  grow  and 
mature.' 

This  new  teaching  for  the  farmer  is  a  most 
attractive  field  for  well-directed  effort.  We 


no  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

need  more  teachers  for  it  in  the  colleges  and 
normal  schools  and  common  schools.  The 
teaching  in  our  agricultural  colleges  should  be 
seized  with  the  missionary  spirit,  with  the  desire 
to  send  out  young  persons  who  care  not  so  much 
to  make  professors  and  experimenters  in  the 
great  institutions,  as  to  give  themselves  to  spread 
the  gospel  of  nature-love  and  of  self-respecting, 
resourceful  farming  through  all  the  colleges  and 
all  the  public  schools.  The  time  is  coming 
quickly  when  the  college  or  school  that  wants 
really  to  reach  the  people  must  teach  rural  sub- 
jects from  the  human  point  of  view. 

We  are  on  the  borderland  of  a  mighty  coun- 
try :  we  are  waiting  for  a  leader  to  take  us  into  it. 


PART  II 

Containing  several  pieces  that  attempt  to 
direct  the  teacher's  outlook  to  nature 


I 

The  Teacher's  Interpretation  of  Nature 

TWO  sisters  stood  on  the  doorstep  bidding 
good-by  to  their  husbands,  who  were  off 
for  a  day's  outing.  One  looked  at  the  sky  and 
said:  "I  am  afraid  it  will  rain."  The  other 
looked  at  the  sky  and  said:  "I  know  that  you'll 
have  a  good  time."  There  was  one  sky,  but 
there  were  two  women.  There  were  two  types 
of  mind.  There  were  two  outlooks  on  the 
world.  There  are  many  persons  who  will  not 
be  pleased  if  they  can  help  it. 

I  know  a  nature-study  teacher  whose  first 
inquiry  about  any  object  is,  "What  is  it  worth?' 
Or,  "What  value  has  it  to  mankind?"  Some 
objects  are  to  be  studied  and  protected  because 
they  are  useful  to  man  in  supplying  his  wants, 
and  all  others  are  passed  over  as  not  worth 
knowing.  I  doubt  whether  this  attitude  can 
bring  about  any  close  and  satisfying  touch  with 
nature.  The  long-continued  habit  of  looking  at 

8  ,13 


ii4  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

the  natural  world  with  the  eyes  of  self-interest 
— to  determine  whether  plants  and  animals  are 
"beneficial"  or  "injurious"  to  man — has  de- 
veloped a  selfish  attitude  toward  nature,  and 
one  that  is  untrue  and  unreal  (pp.  32,  97) .  The 
average  man  to-day  contemplates  nature  only  as 
it  relates  to  his  own  gain  and  enjoyment. 

The  satisfaction  that  we  derive  from  the 
external  world  is  determined  by  the  attitude  in 
which  we  consider  it.  All  unconsciously  one's 
habit  of  mind  toward  the  nature-world  is 
formed.  We  grow  into  our  opinions  and  habits 
of  thought  without  knowing  why.  It  is  there- 
fore well  to  challenge  these  opinions  now  and 
then,  to  see  that  they  contain  the  minimum  of 
error  and  misdirection. 

The  greatest  thing  in  life  is  the  point  of  view. 
It  determines  the  current  of  our  lives. 

However  competent  a  person  may  be  in 
biology  or  other  science,  he  cannot  teach  nature- 
study  unless  he  has  a  wholesome  personal  out- 
look on  the  world. 

The  more  perfect  the  machinery  of  our  lives, 


The  Nature-Study  Idea  115 

the  more  artificial  do  they  become.  Teaching 
is  ever  more  methodical  and  complex.  The 
pupil  is  impressed  with  the  vastness  of  knowl- 
edge and  the  importance  of  research.  This  is 
well;  but  at  some  point  in  the  school-life  there 
should  be  the  opening  of  the  understanding  to 
the  simple  wisdom  of  the  fields.  One's  happi- 
ness depends  less  on  what  he  knows  than  on 
what  he  feels. 

In  these  increasing  complexities  we  need 
nothing  so  much  as  simplicity  and  repose.  In 
city  or  country  or  on  the  sea,  nature  is  the  sur- 
rounding condition.  It  is  the  universal  environ- 
ment. Since  weJidannot  escape  this  condition, 
it  were  better  that  we  have  no  desire  to  escape. 
I tljHfcc  better  thar  we  know  the  things,  small 
and  great,  which  make  up  this  environment,  and 
that  we  live  with  them  in  harmony,  for  all 
things  are  of  kin;  then  shall  we  love  and  be 
content  The  growing  passion  for  country  life 
and  the  natural  unspoiled  world  is  a  soul- 
movement. 

More  and  more,  in  this  time  of  books  and 


ii6  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

reviews,  do  we  need  to  take  care  that  we  think 
our  own  thoughts.  We  need  to  read  less  and 
to  think  more.  We  need  personal,  original 
contact  with  objects  and  events.  We  need  to 
be  self-poised  and  self-reliant.  The  strong  man 
entertains  himself  with  his  own  thoughts.  No 
person  should  rely  solely  on  another  person  for 
his  happiness. 

The  power  that  moves  the  world  is  the  power 
of  the  teacher. 


II 

Science  for  Science's  Sake 

A  DEMURE  little  woman  at  the  teacher's 
convention  told  of  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  her  pupils  had  collected  butterflies  and 
plants,  and  she  described  the  museum  that  they 
had  made.  She  showed  a  folio  of  mounted 
plants,  and  a  cigar-box  containing  insects.  I 
admired  the  specimens,  and  mentally  I  com- 
plimented her  judgment  in  finding  so  good  use 
for  such  a  box.  The  tobacco  odor  kept  the 
carnivorous  bugs  away,  and  I  also  commended 
the  judgment  of  the  bugs.  There  was  genuine 
enthusiasm  in  the  little  woman's  manner,  and  I 
wanted  to  be  a  young  naturalist.  When  she 
was  talking,  I  strayed  far  in  the  fields  and  picked 
a  dandelion. 

But  there  was  a  man  in  the  audience  who 

squelched  the  little  woman.     Her  methods  were 

all  wrong.     They  were  worse  than  wrong:  the 

children   must   unlearn   what   she    had   taught 

117 


u8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

them.  She  should  have  begun  with  some 
definite  subject,  and  followed  it  systematically 
and  logically.  The  pupil  must  be  held  to  the 
task  day  after  day,  until  he  masters  the  topic. 
To  skip  from  subject  to  subject  is  to  be  super- 
ficial. This  way  of  teaching  does  not  result  in 
mental  drill.  To  make  a  collection  is  only 
play,  and  names  are  vulgar.  The  pupil  must 
be  impressed  with  the  completeness  of  his  sub- 
ject, and,  above  all  things,  he  must  be  accurate. 
When  he  was  talking,  I  smelled  alcohol  and  I 
saw  a  frog  in  a  museum  jar. 

Which  was  right?  No  doubt  each  was  cor- 
rect from  the  personal  point  of  view,  but 
wrong  from  the  other's  point  of  view.  I  re- 
called that  the  little  woman  recited  only  what 
she  had  done;  the  man  upbraided  her  for  not 
doing  something  else.  Perhaps  it  is  easy  to 
advise  and  to  criticize.  The  little  woman  was 
teaching  children.  She  wanted  to  lead  them  to 
love  the  things  they  saw.  She  approached  the 
subject  from  the  human  side,  for  are  not  the 
boy  and  the  girl  a  part  of  what  we  call  nature? 
They  are  not  yet  tamed  and  conventionalized. 


Science  for  Science's  Sake         119 

Does  not  every  boy  and  girl  like  to  go  in  the 
fields  and  "get"  things?  She  was  not  thinking 
of  the  subject-matter;  or  if  she  did  think  of  it, 
she  knew  that  it  could  take  care  of  itself.  All 
she  was  thinking  of — poor  soul ! — was  to  inter- 
est and  educate  the  children.  And  she  knew 
that  if  she  set  a  subject  and  followed  it  unre- 
mittingly day  by  day  the  seats  would  soon  be 
vacant. 

The  man  was  thinking  of  his  college  students ; 
perhaps  he  had  not  considered  that  these  stu- 
dents already  liked  the  subject  and  needed  only 
instruction.  He  forgot  that  you  cannot  force 
a  pei  son  to  choose  a  thing,  although  you  may 
force  him  to  take  it.  His  were  picked  students, 
one  from  this  town  and  another  from  that;  hers 
were  all  the  pupils  in  her  little  community.  His 
pupils  had  seen  and  had  chosen;  to  hers  the 
world  was  all  unseen  and  untried.  His  were 
the  one  in  a  hundred;  hers  were  the  entire  hun- 
dred. His  students  had  elected  the  subject;  for 
this  subject  perhaps  they  were  to  live;  they 
would  increase  the  boundaries  of  knowledge; 


I2O  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

they  would  be  scientists.     He  did  not  consider 
that  all  pupils  would  not  be  scientists. 

Sometimes  it  seems  as  if  scientists  assume  that 
they  have  the  right  of  way  in  the  subjects  which 
they  espouse;  but  there  is  more  than  one  way 
of  interpreting  nature.  This  domination  is 
well  illustrated  in  the  usurpation  of  common 
words.  The  word  "organic"  relates  to  organ- 
isms and  their  products.  But  when  the  chemist 
studies  the  composition  of  organic  compounds 
he  defines  the  word  in  terms  of  chemistry.  To 
him  an  organic  compound  may  be  a  carbon 
compound  or  a  carbohydrate  derivative;  and  he 
can  make  an  organic  compound  without  any 
relation  to  an  organism!  Organic  is  a  biologi- 
cal, not  a  chemical  idea.  Again,  our  fore- 
fathers used  the  word  "bug"  for  many  kinds  of 
insects;  but  scientists  have  taken  this  word 
"bug"  and  have  made  it  mean  only  a  particular 
kind  of  a  bug.  This  is  all  well  enough  amongst 
themselves,  but  when  they  attempt  to  make  all 
the  rest  of  the  world  use  "bug"  as  they  do,  they 
go  too  far.  Our  forefathers  have  prior  claims. 
It  would  be  better  if  newly-made  words  could 


Science  for  Science's  Sakef         121 

be  used  for  new  ideas.  Science  needs  a  tech- 
nical language  of  its  own. 

What  is  the  kernel  of  all  this  discussion  about 
the  pedagogical  sin  of  making  collections  and 
of  attaching  names?  It  is  no  doubt  derived 
from  the  older  practice  of  merely  naming 
things.  The  old  idea  of  the  study  of  nature 
was  to  make  an  inventory  of  the  objects  in  the 
world.  The  objects  are  bewilderingly  numer- 
ous, and  to  put  them  away  in  a  cabinet,  with  a 
proper  ticket  attached,  was  to  know  them.  The 
great  want  was  names  and  classification;  and 
these  names  must  be  arranged  in  books.  This 
natural  history  bookkeeping  received  its  largest 
impetus  from  the  binomial  method  of  naming, 
which  might  be  called  a  system  of  "double 
entry." 

This  naming  of  objects  is  necessary.  It  is 
the  starting-point,  as  a  city  directory  is.  But 
it  is  only  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  It  is  not 
an  end.  The  speculations  of  the  modern  evo- 
lutionists have  emphasized  the  importance  of 
the  objects  themselves  in  a  new  way.  The  point 
of  view  has  changed.  Do  not  let  your  pupils 


122  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

make  an  herbarium,  the  modern  teacher  may  say, 
but  tell  them  to  study  the  plants.  We  all 
sympathize  with  this  point  of  view;  but  what 
are  we  going  to  do  with  this  native  and  exu- 
berant desire  of  the  child  to  explore  and  to 
collect?  And  what  better  way  is  there  to  know 
plants  and  animals  than  actually  to  collect  and 
to  study  them?  One  of  my  friends  will  not 
let  his  little  boy  make  an  herbarium,  because 
that  is  mere  superficial  amusement;  so  the  child 
collects  postage  stamps.  He  does  not  care  to 
have  him  know  the  names  of  plants,  but  he  is 
very  careful  to  have  him  properly  introduced 
to  visitors;  and  what  is  an  introduction  but  a 
conventional  passing  of  names  (p.  196)  ? 

I  think  that  science  teaching  has  gone  too  far 
in  discouraging  the  making  of  collections.  We 
can  make  the  collecting  the  means  of  securing 
real  information.  We  can  fasten  the  attention 
of  the  child.  The  one  caution  is  not  to  make 
it  an  end.  The  child  cannot  collect  without 
seeing  the  object  as  it  lives  and  grows.  It 
appeals  to  him  more  in  the  field  than  it  does  in 
the  museum.  Let  him  collect  for  the  purpose 


Science  for  Science's  Sake         123 

of  understanding  a  problem.  Where  does  the 
dandelion  grow?  What  are  the  plants  in  the 
bog  ?  How  many  are  the  weeds  in  the  orchard  ? 
What  are  the  borers  in  the  old  log?  Set  the 
child  a  field  problem  and  he  will  collect  in  spite 
of  himself.  Teach  him  at  the  same  time  to 
respect  the  rights  of  every  living  thing,  and 
never  to  be  wanton.  Then  the  collecting  has 
teaching  power.  But  to  make  a  collection  of 
one  hundred  specimens  in  order  to  obtain  a 
pass-mark  is  scarcely  worth  the  effort  (p.  77). 
The  point  I  urge  is  that  there  is  no  reason  in 
the  nature  of  things  why  subjects  always  should 
be  taught  this  way  or  that,  so  long  as  they  are 
taught  truthfully  and  with  purpose — and  there 
are  many  ways  of  teaching  the  truth.  At  one 
time  or  place  we  may  teach  for  science's  sake; 
at  another  time  or  place  with  equal  justification 
we  may  teach  for  the  pupil's  sake. 


Ill 

Extrinsic  and   Intrinsic  Views  of  Nature 


''^TMIE  purpose  of  this  exercise  is  to  tell 
A  children  how  to  see  the  hidden  beauties 
of  flowers."  Thus  ran  the  announcement  at 
the  opening  of  the  classroom  period.  Is  it 
worth  while  to  tell  them  any  such  thing  ?  Why 
not  teach  them  to  be  interested  in  plants? 
Why  give  them  a  half-truth  when  they  might 
have  the  whole  truth? 

The  "beauty"  of  a  flower  or  a  bird  is  only 
an  incident:  the  plant  or  the  bird  is  the  im- 
portant thing  to  know.  Beauty  is  not  an  end. 
The  person  who  starts  out  to  see  beauty  in 
plants  is  often  in  the  condition  of  mind  that  the 
dear  old  lady  was  who  came  into  my  conserva- 
tory and  exclaimed,  as  she  saw  the  geraniums, 
"Oh,  they  are  as  pretty  as  artificial  flowers!" 

But  these  people  are  not  looking  for  beauty, 
after  all;  they  look  for  mere  satisfying  form  or 
color  or  oddity.  They  confound  beauty  with 

124 


Extrinsic  and  Intrinsic  Views      125 

prettiness  or  with  outward  attractiveness.  Real 
beauty  is  deeper  than  sensation.  It  inheres  in 
fitness  of  means  to  end  as  well  as  in  striking 
features.  The  child  should  see  the  object  itself 
before  he  sees  its  parts  or  its  attributes.  Teach 
first  the  whole  bug,  the  whole  bird,  the  whole 
plant,  with  something  of  the  way  in  which  it 
lives.  The  botanist  may  well  devote  his  life  to 
a  cell,  but  the  layman  wants  to  know  the  trees 
and  the  woods. 

I  dislike  to  hear  people  say  that  they  love 
flowers.  They  should  love  plants;  then  they 
have  a  deeper  hold.  Intellectual  interest  should 
go  deeper  than  shape  or  color.  Teachers  or 
parents  ask  the  child  to  see  how  "pretty"  the 
object  is;  but  in  most  cases  the  child  wants  to 
know  how  it  lives  and  what  it  does. 

It  is  instructive  to  note  the  increasing  love  for 
wild  animals  and  plants  as  a  country  grows  old 
and  mature.  This  is  particularly  well  illus- 
trated in  plants.  In  pioneer  times  there  are  too 
many  plants.  The  effort  is  to  get  rid  of  them. 
The  forest  is  razed  and  the  roadsides  are 
cleaned.  The  pioneer  is  satisfied  with  things 


ia6  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

in  the  gross.  If  he  plants  at  all,  he  usually 
plants  things  exotic  or  strange  to  the  neigh- 
borhood. The  woman  grows  a  geranium  or 
fuchsia  in  a  tin  can,  and  now  and  then  makes 
a  flower-bed  in  the  front  yard;  but  the  man  is 
likely  to  think  such  things  beneath  him.  If  a 
man  has  flowers  at  all,  he  must  have  something 
that  will  fill  the  eye.  Sunflowers  are  satisfying. 
But  the  second  and  third  generations  begin 
to  plant  forests  and  to  allow  the  roadsides  to 
grow  wild  at  intervals.  Persons  come  to  be 
satisfied  with  their  common  surroundings  and 
to  derive  less  pleasure  from  objects  merely 
because  they  are  unlike  their  surroundings. 
Choice  plants  come  into  the  yards  here  and 
there,  and  the  men  of  the  household  begin  to 
care  for  them.  The  birds  and  wild  animals  are 
cherished.  (I  know  a  man  who  in  his  pioneer 
days  took  no  interest  in  crows  except  to  get  rid 
of  them,  but  who  later  in  life  wept  when  a 
crow's  nest  in  an  apple  tree  was  robbed.)  Love 
of  books  increases.  All  this  marks  the  growth 
of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life. 


Extrinsic  and  Intrinsic  Views      127 

America  is  a  land  of  cut  flowers.  Nowhere 
does  the  cut-flower  trade  assume  such  command- 
ing importance.  Churches  and  homes  are  deco- 
rated with  them.  One  sees  the  churches  of  the 
Old  World  decorated  with  plants  in  pots  or 
tubs.  The  Englishman  or  the  German  loves 
to  care  for  the  plant  from  the  time*  it  sprouts 
until  it  dies :  it  is  a  companion.  The  American 
snips  off  its  head  and  puts  it  in  his  buttonhole: 
it  is  an  ornament.  I  have  sometimes  wondered 
whether  the  average  flower-buyer  knows  that 
flowers  grow  on  plants. 

All  of  us  have  known  persons  who  derive 
more  satisfaction  from  a  poor  plant  that  never 
blooms  than  others  do  from  a  bunch  of  Amer- 
ican Beauty  roses  at  five  dollars.  There  is 
individuality — I  had  almost  said  personality — 
in  a  growing,  living  plant,  but  there  is  little  of 
it  in  a  detached  flower.  And  it  does  not  matter 
so  much  if  the  plant  is  poor  and  weakly  and 
scrawny.  Do  we  not  love  poor  and  crippled 
and  crooked  people?  A  plant  in  the  room  on 
washday  is  worth  more  than  a  bunch  of  flowers 
on  Sunday. 


ia8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

But  the  American  taste  is  rapidly  changing. 
Each  year  the  florist's  trade  sees  a  proportion- 
ately greater  demand  for  plants.  The  same 
change  is  seen  in  the  parks  and  home  grounds. 
Every  summer  more  gross  carpet-beds  are  rele- 
gated to  those  parts  of  the  grounds  that  are 
devoted  to  curiosities,  or  they  are  omitted  alto- 
gether, and  in  their  stead  are  restful  sward  and 
attractive  plant  forms.  Flowers  are  not  to  be 
despised,  but  they  are  accessories. 

This  habit  of  looking  first  at  what  we  call 
the  beauty  of  objects  is  closely  associated  with 
the  old  conceit  that  everything  is  made  to  please 
man:  man  is  only  demanding  his  own.  It  is 
true  that  everything  is  man's  because  he  may 
use  it  or  enjoy  it,  but  not  because  it  was  designed 
and  "made"  for  "him"  in  the  beginning.  This 
notion  that  all  things  were  made  for  man's 
special  pleasure  is  colossal  self-assurance.  It 
has  none  of  the  humility  of  the  psalmist,  who 
exclaimed,  "What  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful 
of  him?" 

"What  were  these  things  made  for,  then?" 
asked  my  friend.  Just  for  themselves!  Each 


Extrinsic  and  Intrinsic  Views      129 

thing  lives  for  itself  and  its  kind,  and  to  live  is 
worth  the  effort  of  living  for  man  or  bug.  But 
there  are  more  homely  reasons  for  believing 
that  things  were  not  made  for  man  alone. 
There  was  logic  in  the  farmer's  retort  to  the 
good  man  who  told  him  that  roses  were  made 
to  make  man  happy.  "No,  they  waVt,"  said 
the  farmer,  "or  they  wouldn't  'a'  had  prickers." 
A  teacher  asked  me  what  snakes  are  "good 
for."  Of  course,  there  is  but  one  answer:  they 
are  good  to  be  snakes. 

Being  human,  we  interpret  nature  in  human 
terms.  Much  of  our  interpretation  of  nature 
is  only  an  interpretation  of  ourselves.  Because 
a  condition  or  a  motive  obtains  in  human  affairs, 
we  assume  that  it  obtains  everywhere.  The 
only  point  of  view  is  our  own  point  of  view. 
Of  necessity,  we  assume  a  starting-point;  there- 
from we  evolve  an  hypothesis  which  may  be 
either  truth  or  fallacy.  Asa  Gray  combated 
Agassiz's  hypothesis  that  species  were  originally 
created  where  we  now  find  them  and  in  approx- 
imately the  same  numbers  by  invoking  Mauper- 
tuis's  "principle  of  least  action" — "that  it  is 
9 


130  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

inconsistent  with  our  idea  of  divine  wisdom 
that  the  Creator  should  use  more  power  than 
was  necessary  to  accomplish  a  given  end."  The 
result  may  be  secured  with  a  less  expenditure  of 
energy  than  Agassiz's  method  would  entail. 
But  who  knows  that  "our  idea  of  the  divine  wis- 
dom1' is  correct?  It  is  only  a  human  meta- 
phor; but,  being  human,  it  may  be  useful. 

Much  of  our  thinking  about  nature  is  only 
the  working  out  of  propositions  in  logic,  and 
logic  is  sometimes,  I  fear,  but  a  clever  substi- 
tute for  truth.  It  is  impossible  to  put  ourselves 
in  nature's  place — if  I  may  be  allowed  the 
phrase ;  that  is,  difficult  to  work  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  organism  that  we  are  studying.  If 
it  were  possible  to  get  that  point  of  view,  it 
would  be  an  end  to  much  of  our  speculation; 
we  should  then  deal  with  things  as  they  are. 

We  hope  that  we  are  coming  nearer  to  an 
intrinsic  view  of  animals  and  plants ;  yet  we  are 
still  so  intent  on  discovering  what  ought  to  be, 
that  we  forget  to  accept  what  is. 


IV 

Must  a  "Use"  be  found  for  Everything? 
pupil  had  a  plant  of  the  spring 


E 


buttercup.  The  teacher  called  attention 
to  the  long  fibrous  roots,  the  parted  leaves,  the 
yellow  flowers;  but  these  parts  were  apparently 
only  incidentals,  for  she  touched  them  lightly. 
But  the  hairs  on  the  stem  and  leaves  were  im- 
portant. They  must  be  of  some  use  to  the 
plant.  What  is  it?  Evidently  to  protect  the 
plant  from  cold,  for  does  not  the  plant  throw 
up  its  tiny  stem  in  the  very  teeth  of  winter?  It 
was  clear  enough;  and  thus  are  we  taught  that 
not  the  least  thing  is  made  in  vain.  Everything 
has  its  place  and  use;  it  is  our  business  to 
determine  what  the  uses  are. 

I  wondered  how  these  children  would  look 
on  the  plants  and  animals  they  meet,  and 
what  the  great  round  world  would  mean  to 
them.  The  blackberry  has  thorns  to  keep 
away  the  animals  that  would  harm  it ;  the  rabbit 

has  soft  short  fur  that  it  may  pass  through 
131 


132  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

brush  and  briers ;  the  mud-turtle  is  flat  so  that  it 
will  not  sink  in  the  mud;  the  poison  sumac  has 
venom  to  protect  it  from  those  who  would 
destroy  it;  the  crow  is  black  that  it  may  not  be 
seen  at  night;  the  nettle  has  stings  to  punish  its 
enemies;  the  dog  fennel  has  rank  scent  to  pro- 
tect it  from  the  browsing  animals ;  certain  insects 
have  a  zigzag  flight  to  enable  them  to  elude 
their  enemies.  All  the  world  is  as  perfect  as 
a  museum ! 

I  wondered  what  would  happen  if  some  in- 
quisitive child  were  to  ask  what  becomes  of  all 
the  plants  that  have  no  thorns  or  hairs  or  poison 
or  ill  scent.  What  if  he  should  ask  why  the 
thornless  blackberry  does  not  perish,  or  why 
the  sumacs  that  are  not  poisonous  still  live,  or 
if  he  should  suggest  that  the  dandelion  comes 
up  earlier  in  the  spring  than  the  buttercup  and 
yet  has  no  hairs  on  its  soft  flower-stem?  As  I 
wondered,  a  little  hand  went  up.  The  teacher 
granted  a  question.  "Pigweeds  ain't  got 
prickers,"  said  the  boy.  I  saw  that  the  boy 
was  a  philosopher.  "True  enough,"  replied 


A  "Use"  for  Everything          133 

the  teacher  promptly,  "but  I  am  sure  that  it  has 
something  with  which  to  protect  itself." 

Thereby  I  knew  her  point  of  view:  she  had 
made  up  her  mind  what  to  see,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary only  to  hunt  until  she  saw  it;  and  in  this 
respect  she  was  like  many  another.  Persons 
seem  to  interpret  the  struggle  for  existence  as 
a  fight.  It  is  a  sanguinary  combat  between 
adults.  Everything  must  protect  itself  with 
armor.  A  botanist,  in  writing  a  description  of 
a  new  and  strange  plant,  noted  the  peculiar 
spines  and  then  remarked:  "That  these  are  of 
some  use  to  the  plant  can  hardly  be  doubted. 
Perhaps  they  serve  to  prevent  the  access  of 
undesirable  insects." 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  find  an  explanation 
for  anything;  the  only  difficulty  is  to  determine 
whether  the  explanation  is  true.  I  have  just 
read  in  an  old  book  that  the  reason  why  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  graft  failed  to  grow  was  because 
of  the  "disappointment  of  the  sap."  I  laughed 
at  the  expression;  and  yet  is  it  not  as  scientific 
as  to  say  that  the  hairs  exist  to  keep  the  crow- 
foot warm  or  that  the  sumac  has  poison  to  pro- 


134  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

tect  it  from  its  enemies?  The  teacher  may  as 
well  have  said  that  Jimmie  Brown  has  freckles 
so  that  the  sun  will  not  tan  his  skin;  and  the 
statement  would  be  hard  to  disprove. 

A  teacher  asked  me  whether  it  is  not  true 
that  her  cactus  has  spines  in  order  to  protect 
it  from  browsing  animals.  I  told  her  that  I 
did  not  know.  As  I  was  a  stranger  to  her,  she 
wondered  at  my  ignorance.  She  wanted  to 
know  why  I  did  not  know.  I  told  her  that  I  had 
no  good  evidence  that  an  animal  ever  wanted  to 
browse  on  her  cactus  or  its  ancestors.  Perhaps 
the  cactus  spines  are  older  than  the  browsing 
animals.  Perhaps  there  was  some  special  con- 
dition or  reason  in  geologic  time.  Perhaps  the 
spines  were  in  some  way  an  incidental  result 
of  the  contraction  of  the  plant  body,  which  con- 
traction was  associated  with  the  necessity  of 
reducing  the  evaporating  surface  in  an  arid 
climate.  Perhaps  a  hundred  things.  She  was 
surprised  that  I  had  to  go  into  geologic  time 
to  bury  my  ignorance.  She  wanted  cause  and 
effect  side  by  side,  and  in  the  present.  Then 


A  "Use"  for  Everything          135 

she  could  see  them.  It  is  a  bother  to  look 
behind  for  causes. 

This  is  a  typical  case.  This  attitude  toward 
nature  comes  almost  daily  to  the  teacher;  in 
fact,  it  sometimes  comes  from  the  teacher. 
The  mischief  is  increased  by  many  popular 
books  on  science,  and  some  of  these  books  have 
been  written  by  persons  who  have  done  noble 
work  for  truth. 

This  is  one  of  the  greatest  faults  with  the 
popular  outlook  on  nature — the  belief  that 
every  feature  of  plant  or  animal  has  a  distinct 
use  in  the  present  time  and  that  one  has  only, 
to  look  to  be  able  to  see  what  this  use  is.  Per- 
sons often  look  at  the  little  things  and  miss  the 
big  ones.  They  look  for  the  hairs  and  miss 
the  plant.  They  see  the  unusual  and  overlook 
the  common. 

Having  seen  a  feature  of  which  the  function 
is  not  evident,  they  assume  a  condition  and 
jump  at  a  conclusion.  A  plant  has  poison; 
various  creatures  eat  plants;  the  creatures  are 
killed  by  poison :  therefore  the  plant  has  poison 
to  protect  itself  from  the  creatures.  Now,  it 


136  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

may  even  be  true  that  the  poison  does  protect 
the  plant,  but  there  is  no  proof  thereby  that  the 
poison  was  produced  for  that  purpose.  The 
physiologist  may  find  that  the  poison  in  the 
given  case  is  merely  a  waste  product  of  some 
chemical  metabolism,  and  that  the  plant  is  for- 
tunate in  getting  rid  of  it.  If  the  plant  is  now 
and  then  protected,  the  result  is  an  incident. 
If  it  should  appear  that  one  kind  of  plant,  by 
natural  selection  or  otherwise,  has  developed 
poison  in  order  to  protect  itself,  the  fact  would 
be  spread  abroad  in  book  and  magazine,  but 
it  would  not  be  stated  that  it  was  one  case  out 
of  a  thousand.  The  exception  is  enlarged  into 
the  rule. 

Persons  like  to  believe  in  perfect  adaptation 
of  means  to  ends,  without  a  slip  or  break  in  the 
process.  They  assume  that  all  organisms  have 
definite  protectional  features.  A  teacher  brought 
a  flower  and  asked  what  mechanism  it  had  to 
insure  cross-pollination.  I  told  her  that  I  was 
not  aware  that  it  had  any;  and  she  was  sur- 
prised. She  asked  what  mimicry  protection  a 
certain  animal  had;  I  was  obliged  to  make  a 


A  "Use"  for  Everything  137 

similar  reply.  I  wish  that  somebody  would 
write  a  book  about  non-adaptations  and  misfits 
in  nature. 

No  one  knows  what  spines  and  thorns  are 
"for,"  and  the  true  naturalist  does  not  ask  the 
question.  He  does  not  assume  that  because 
they  would  protect  a  man  they  would  also  pro- 
tect another  animal  or  a  plant.  He  wants  to 
know  how  they  came  to  be,  and  what  is  their 
significance  in  the  development  of  this  particular 
race.  He  wants  proof  that  adaptations  are 
adaptations.  He  sets  to  work  to  find  out.  He 
cannot  find  out  as  he  rides  by  on  his  horse — 
especially  if  he  rides  a  hobby-horse. 

This  everything-has-a-use  dogma  is  in  part  a 
reaction  from  the  teachings  of  Darwin  and  his 
followers.  The  dogma  of  special  creation  was 
overthrown.  We  were  told  that  organisms  and 
attributes  have  persisted  because  of  natural 
selection — because  they  were  best  fitted  to  per- 
sist. The  result,  in  many  cases,  is  perfect 
adaptation  of  every  organ  and  attribute.  There 
followed  a  special  literature  on  adaptation, 
mimicry  and  the  like.  The  precision  and  design 


138  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

of  the  special-creation  theory  was  transferred  to 
the  adaptation  theory.  The  examples  may  all 
have  been  true,  but  one  result  has  been  to  lead 
persons  to  look  for  adaptations  and  mimicry 
everywhere,  and  to  assume  that  they  exist. 
What  does  it  matter  if  there  is  no  special  crea- 
tion?— there  is  complete  and  universal  adapta- 
tion, vindicating  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator 
and  our  notions  of  what  ought  to  be  are  verified. 
But  some  one  will  say,  if  there  is  natural  selec- 
tion and  survival  of  the  fittest,  adaptation  must 
follow  as  a  consequence.  Yes;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  every  part  or  feature  of  the  organ- 
ism is  specially  adapted,  at  least  not  at  the 
present  epoch  of  time.  A  strong  feature  may 
carry  other  features  that  are  merely  innocuous 
or  even  harmful,  as  a  horse  carries  a  rider;  and 
then,  if  unfit  features  tend  to  pass  away,  these 
features  are  misfits  and  remnants  until  they 
have  disappeared. 


The  New  Hunting 

THE  world  is  full  of  animals  and  plants. 
Every  animal  and  plant  has  the  power  to 
multiply  itself  many  fold.  Every  one  contends 
for  an  opportunity  to  live. 

This  contention  forces  the  individual  to  live 
for  itself.  Self-preservation,  it  is  said,  is  the 
first  law  of  nature.  The  animal  appropriates 
food,  usurps  territory,  kills  and  even  devours 
its  contestants.  It  kills  because  it  must.  It  is 
goaded  by  the  whip  of  necessity.  To  live  is  the 
highest  desire  that  it  knows.  Its  acts  need  no 
justification. 

Man  also  is  an  animal.  He  has  come  up 
from  the  world-fauna.  On  his  way  he  con- 
tended hand  to  hand  with  the  other  animal 
creation.  He  killed  from  necessity  of  securing 
food.  As  he  rose  above  his  contestants,  this 
necessity  became  less  urgent.  He  has  now 

obtained  dominion,  but  he  is  not  yet  fully  eman- 
139 


140  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

cipated  from  the  necessity  of  taking  life.  Per- 
haps complete  emancipation  will  come. 

The  old  desire  to  kill — first  born  of  necessity 
— still  lingers  with  men.  We  still  have  much 
of  the  savage  in  us.  But  now  we  kill  also  for 
"sport."  Practically  a  new  motive  has  been 
born  into  the  world  with  man — the  desire  to 
kill  for  the  sake  of  killing.  One  generation  of 
white  men  is  sufficient  practically  to  exterminate 
the  bison  and  several  other  species.  All  this 
needs  justification.  The  lower  creation  is  not 
the  plaything  of  man. 

We  are  still  obliged  to  kill  for  our  necessities. 
We  must  secure  food  and  raiment.  More  and 
more  we  are  rearing  the  animals  that  we  would 
take  for  food.  We  give  them  less  dangerous 
lives.  We  protect  them  from  the  severities  of 
the  struggle  for  existence.  We  remove  them 
from  the  necessities  of  protecting  themselves 
from  violence.  We  take  our  own.  There  is 
here  little  question  of  morals.  We  give  that 
we  may  take;  and  we  take  because  we  must. 

To  kill  for  mere  sport  is  a  very  different  mat- 
ter: it  lies  outside  the  realm  of  struggle  for 


The  New  Hunting  141 

existence.  Too  often  there  is  not  even  the  jus- 
tification of  fair  play.  Usually  the  hunter 
exposes  himself  to  no  danger  from  the  animal 
that  he  would  kill.  He  takes  no  risks.  He 
has  the  advantage  of  long-range  weapons. 
There  is  no  combat.  Over  on  the  lake  shore 
every  spring  I  see  great  cones  of  ice,  built  up  by 
the  action  of  the  waves.  Several  stalwart  men 
have  skulked  behind  them  and  lie  secure  from 
observation.  A  little  flock  of  birds,  unsuspect- 
ing, unprotected,  harming  no  man,  obeying  the 
laws  of  their  kind,  skims  across  the  water.  The 
guns  discharge.  The  whole  flock  falls,  the 
mangled  birds  struggling  and  crying,  and  taint- 
ing the  water  with  their  blood  as  they  are  car- 
ried away  on  the  waves,  perhaps  to  die  on  the 
shores.  There  is  a  shout  of  victory  and  a 
laugh  of  satisfaction.  Surely,  man  is  the  king 
of  beasts ! 

But  there  is  another  and  fairer  side.  The 
lack  of  feeling  for  wounded  animals  is  often 
thoughtlessness.  The  satisfaction  in  hunting  is 
often  the  joy  of  skill  in  marksmanship,  the 
pleasure  of  woodcraft,  the  enthusiasm  of  being 


142  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

in  the  open,  the  keen  delight  in  discovering  the 
haunts  and  ways  of  the  nature-folk.  Many  a 
hunter  finds  more  pleasure  in  all  these  things 
than  in  the  game  that  he  bags.  The  great  ma- 
jority of  hunters  are  gentle  and  large-hearted 
men.  They  are  the  first  to  discourage  mere 
wantonness  and  brutality.  Under  their  hand, 
certain  animals  are  likely  to  increase,  because 
they  eliminate  the  rapacious  species.  To  the 
true  sportsman,  hunting  is  not  synonymous  with 
killing.  It  is  primarily  a  means  of  enjoying  the 
free  world  of  the  out-of-doors.  The  nature- 
spirit  is  growing,  and  there  are  many  ways  of 
knowing  the  fields  and  woods.  The  camera 
and  spy-glass  are  competing  with  the  trap  and 
gun ;  and  in  time  they  ought  to  gain  the  mastery. 
It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  shoot  a  bird  in  order 
to  know  it. 

I  must  not  be  understood  as  opposed  to  all 
hunting  with  the  gun  or  the  rod.  Every  man 
has  a  right  to  decide  these  questions  for  himself. 
I  wish  only  to  suggest  that  there  are  other  ways 
of  getting  satisfaction  from  an  expedition  or  a 
camping  trip.  There  was  a  time  when  animals 


The  New  Hunting  143 

were  known  mostly  in  museums,  or  in  books 
that  suggested  museums.  We  now  know  them 
in  woods  and  fields  where  they  live.  We  know 
what  they  do,  as  well  as  what  they  are.  Mak- 
ing pictures  from  stuffed  specimens  will  soon  be 
a  thing  of  the  past.  Read  any  book  of  natural 
history  of  fifty  years  ago;  then  read  one  of 
to-day.  Note  the  road  by  which  we  have  come : 
this  may  color  your  own  attitude  toward  the 
nature-world. 

A  new  literature  has  been  born.  It  is  writ- 
ten from  the  out-of-doors  viewpoint,  rather 
than  from  the  study  viewpoint.  Man  is  not 
the  only,  nor  even  the  chief,  actor.  Even  the 
stories  of  animals  of  the  old  time  do  not  have 
the  flavor  of  this  bright  new  literature.  Not 
so  very  long  ago  animal  stories  were  told  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  a  moral — they  were 
self-conscious.  Now  they  are  told  because  they 
are  worth  telling.  The  real  moral  is  the  inter- 
est in  the  animal  and  the  way  in  which  it  con- 
trives to  live,  not  in  some  literary  custom  that 
tries  to  make  an  application  to  human  conduct. 
No  longer  can  one  write  a  good  nature-piece 


144  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

without  intimate  knowledge  of  the  animal  or 
plant  in  the  wild,  and  until  he  has  tried  to  put 
himself  in  its  place.  Perhaps  the  old  school  of 
literary  effort  is  not  losing  ground;  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  new  is  gaining.  The  new  litera- 
ture is  founded  on  first-hand  knowledge,  but  it 
embraces  all  the  human  sympathies.  It  is  the 
outcome  of  the  study  of  objects  and  phenomena. 
The  first  product  was  scientific  literature.  The 
second  is  the  lucid  resourceful  nature-writing  of 
the  present  day.  There  are  new  standards  of 
literary  excellence. 

The  awakening  interest  in  the  nature-world 
is  strongly  reflected  in  the  game  laws — for  these 
laws  are  only  an  imperfect  expression  of  the 
growing  desire  to  let  everything  live  its  own 
life.  The  recent  revulsion  of  feeling  against 
the  shooting  of  trapped  pigeons,  as  expressed  in 
agitations  before  state  legislatures,  is  an  excel- 
lent example  in  point.  It  is  gratifying  that  a 
prominent  place  in  the  discussions  for  good 
game  laws  is  taken  by  sportsmen  themselves. 
It  is  recognized  that  hunting  for  sport  must  be 


The  New  Hunting  145 

kept  within  bounds,  and  that  it  must  rise  above 
mere  slaughter  of  defenseless  animals. 

Another  expression  of  this  growing  sympathy 
is  exhibited  in  the  reservation  of  certain  areas  in 
which  animals  are  to  be  unmolested.  It  is  most 
significant  that  while  many  country  regions  are 
practically  shot  clean  of  animal  life,  sometimes 
even  to  songbirds,  the  parks  and  other  public 
properties  in  cities  often  support  this  wild  life 
in  abundance.  Usually  it  is  easier  to  study 
squirrels  and  many  kinds  of  birds  in  the  city 
parks  than  in  their  native  wilds.  To  this 
awakening  interest  in  the  preservation  of  ani- 
mals is  now  added  the  desire  to  preserve  the 
wild  flowers  and  to  protect  scenery.  The  fu- 
ture will  see  the  wild  animals  and  plants  safely 
ensconced  in  those  areas  that  lie  beyond  the 
reach  of  cultivated  fields;  and  these  things  will 
be  the  heritage  of  the  people,  not  of  the  hunter, 
marksman,  and  collector  alone. 

This  desire  to  protect  and  preserve  our  nativa 
animals  is  well  expressed  in  President  Roose- 
velt's reference  to  the  subject  when  discussing 
the  forest  preserves  in  his  first  message  to  Con- 

10 


146  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

gress:  "Certain  of  the  forest  reserves  should 
also  be  made  preserves  for  the  wild  forest  crea- 
tures. All  of  the  reserves  should  be  better  pro- 
tected from  fires.  Many  of  them  need  special 
protection  because  of  the  great  injury  done  by 
live  stock,  above  all  by  sheep.  The  increase 
in  deer,  elk  and  other  animals  in  the  Yellow- 
stone Park  shows  what  may  be  expected  when 
other  mountain  forests  are  properly  protected 
by  law  and  properly  guarded.  Some  of  those 
areas  have  been  so  denuded  of  surface  vegeta- 
tion by  overgrazing  that  the  ground-breeding 
birds,  including  grouse  and  quail,  and  many 
mammals,  including  deer,  have  been  extermi- 
nated or  driven  away  ....  In  cases  where 
natural  conditions  have  been  restored  for  a  few 
years,  vegetation  has  again  carpeted  the  ground, 
birds  and  deer  are  coming  back,  and  hundreds 
of  persons,  especially  from  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, come  each  summer  to  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  camping.  Some  at  least  of  the 
forest  reserves  should  afford  perpetual  protec- 
tion to  the  native  fauna  and  flora,  safe  havens 
of  refuge  to  our  rapidly  diminishing  wild  ani- 


The  New  Hunting  147 

mals  of  the  larger  kinds,  and  free-camping 
grounds  for  the  ever-increasing  numbers  of 
men  and  women  who  have  learned  to  find  rest, 
health  and  recreation  in  the  splendid  forests 
and  flower-clad  meadows  of  our  mountains. 
The  forest  reserves  should  be  set  apart  forever 
for  the  use  and  benefit  of  our  people  as  a  whole, 
and  not  sacrificed  to  the  short-sighted  greed  of 
a  few." 

The  enlargement  of  our  sympathies  is  also 
well  reflected  in  the  many  societies  that  aim  to 
lessen  cruelty  to  animals.  This  movement  is 
an  outgrowth  of  the  rapidly  growing  feeling  of 
altruism — the  interest  in  others — which,  in  the 
religious  sphere,  has  ripened  into  the  missionary 
spirit  and  into  toleration.  The  prevention  of 
cruelty  to  animals  is  of  more  consequence  to 
man  than  to  the  animals.  They  suffer  less  than 
we.  Perhaps  the  movement  is  in  danger  here 
and  there  of  degenerating  into  mere  sentimen- 
talism  and  faddism ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  is  sane 
and  useful,  because  it  measures  our  increasing 
sensitiveness. 

Hunting  to  kill  is  not  necessarily  cruel.     The 


148  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

best  hunting  is  that  which  kills  quickly.  The 
poorest — for  both  the  hunted  and  the  hunter — 
is  that  which  prolongs  the  struggle.  The 
"gamey"  fish  is  the  one  most  liked  by  anglers. 
The  "sport"  of  catching  him  depends  on  his 
desperate  struggle  for  life;  and  this  struggle  is 
often  prolonged  that  the  excitement  may  be 
greater!  Nature  herself  could  be  indicted  for 
cruelty  were  not  her  practices  dictated  by  inevi- 
table conditions;  but  this  fact  does  not  release 
man,  who  acts  largely  as  a  free  and  moral  agent. 
In  nature,  many  animals  meet  violent  or  tragic 
deaths.  The  bird  of  passage  that  cannot  keep 
up  with  its  fellows  is  caught  by  the  hawk  or 
owl.  The  weaklings  and  stragglers  are  taken. 
Raise  the  curtain  of  night  and  behold  the 
tragedies.  Where  are  the  graves  of  the  unfit? 

Man  is  not  responsible  for  the  tragedies  of 
nature;  but  he  is  responsible  for  the  tragedies 
that  he  himself  inflicts. 

The  practices  of  any  age  are  but  the  expres- 
sions of  the  needs  and  motives  of  that  age. 
Much  of  the  hunting  is  dictated  by  the  desire 
of  profits  in  money,  and  these  profits  often 


The  New  Hunting  149 

depend  on  fashion.  Mere  fashion  has  been  the 
cause  of  the  practical  extermination  of  species 
of  birds;  but  public  opinion  is  finally  aroused  to 
check  it.  The  demand  for  furs  is  leading  to 
similar  results.  Many  species  of  animals  perish 
before  the  continued  progress  of  civilization, 
by  means  of  which  the  native  haunts  are  de- 
stroyed. We  must  protect  that  which  we  need 
to  grow  for  our  own  use.  It  is  inevitable  that 
the  animal  creation,  as  a  whole,  shall  recede 
as  the  earth  is  subdued  to  man.  But  too  often 
this  creation  has  fallen  long  before  its  time — 
fallen  as  a  result  of  unnecessary  killing,  and  of 
a  desire  of  bloodthirstiness  that  is  unworthy 
of  us. 

The  foregoing  remarks  are  meant  to  illus- 
trate what  I  think  to  be  an  enlarging  vision  of 
our  own  place  in  the  world.  The  point  of  view 
is  shifting.  The  spiritual  factors  have  increas- 
ingly more  influence  in  shaping  the  course  of 
our  evolution.  In  time  we  shall  probably  be 
released  entirely  from  the  necessity  of  taking 
animal  life  to  supply  us  with  food.  This  will 
come  as  a  result  of  our  enlarging  spiritual  out- 


150  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

look  rather  than  as  a  result  of  agitations  con- 
cerned with  questions  of  diet  or  with  any  mere 
propaganda.  It  is  said  that  the  conformation 
of  man's  teeth  shows  that  a  flesh  diet  is  neces- 
sary, but  this  only  indicates  what  our  evolution 
has  been,  not  what  it  will  be  or  what  is  now 
a  necessity  for  us.  The  further  evolution  will 
come  slowly,  but  whatever  it  may  be,  we  have 
reason  to  think  that  our  points  of  contact  with 
the  nature-world  will  strengthen  and  multiply. 


VI 

The  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature 

MERRILY  swinging  on  brier  and  weed, 
Near  to  the  nest  of  his  little  dame, 
Over  the  mountain-side  or  mead, 

Robert  of  Lincoln  is  telling  his  name: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Snug  and  safe  is  that  nest  of  ours, 
Hidden  among  the  summer  flowers. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln  is  gaily  drest, 

Wearing  a  bright  black  wedding-coat ; 
White  are  his  shoulders  and  white  his  crest. 
Hear  him  call  in  his  merry  note: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Look  what  a  nice  new  coat  is  mine, 
Sure  there  was  never  a  bird  so  fine. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln's  Quaker  wife, 

Pretty  and  quiet  with  plain  brown  wings, 


152  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Passing  at  home  a  patient  life, 

Broods  in  the  grass  while  her  husband  sings: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 

Brood,  kind  creature;  you  need  not  fear 
Thieves  and  robbers  while  I  am  here. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Modest  and  shy  as  a  nun  is  she; 

One  weak  chirp  is  her  only  note. 
Braggart  and  prince  of  braggarts  is  he, 
Pouring  boasts  from  his  little  throat: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Never  was  I  afraid  of  man ; 
Catch  me,  cowardly  knaves,  if  you  can! 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Six  white  eggs  on  a  bed  of  hay, 

Flecked  with  purple,  a  pretty  sight! 
There  as  the  mother  sits  all  day, 
Robert  is  singing  with  all  his  might: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Nice  good  wife,  that  never  goes  out, 


Poetic  Interpretation  153 

Keeping  house  while  I  frolic  about. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Soon  as  the  little  ones  chip  the  shell, 

Six  wide  mouths  are  open  for  food; 
Robert  of  Lincoln  bestirs  him  well, 

Gathering  seeds  for  the  hungry  brood. 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
This  new  life  is  likely  to  be 
Hard  for  a  gay  young  fellow  like  me. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln  at  length  is  made 

Sober  with  work,  and  silent  with  care; 
Off  is  his  holiday  garment  laid, 
Half  forgotten  that  merry  air: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Nobody  knows  but  my  mate  and  I 
Where  our  nest  and  our  nestlings  lie. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Summer  wanes;  the  children  are  grown; 

Fun  and  frolic  no  more  he  knows ; 
Robert  of  Lincoln's  a  humdrum  crone; 


154  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Off  he  flies,  and  we  sing  as  he  goes : 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 

When  you  can  pipe  that  merry  old  strain, 
Robert  of  Lincoln,  come  back  again. 
Chee,  chee,  chee.* 

This  was  the  exercise  that  the  children  were 
having  as  I  visited  the  school  on  a  June  morn- 
ing. It  was  the  new  old  song  by  which  Bryant 
is  remembered  of  the  country  boy  and  girl. 
The  children  had  seen  and  studied  the  bobolink. 
They  had  heard  the  liquid  rattle  of  his  song. 
They  had  seen  the  nest  in  the  grass.  They  had 
watched  for  the  Quaker  wife.  They  had  seen 
the  purple-flecked  eggs.  They  knew  that 
Robert  of  Lincoln  would  leave  them.  The 
poem  touched  their  hearts. 

With  enthusiasm  I  related  the  experience  to 
my  friend,  the  teacher  of  biology  in  a  college. 
He  doubted  the  value  of  such  work.  He  saw 
only  danger  in  it.  Such  teaching  tends  to 
looseness  of  ideas.  It  makes  the  mind  dis- 
cursive. It  does  not  fix  and  fasten  the  atten- 

*  From  Complete  Works  of  William  Cullen  Bryant. 
Published  by  D.  Appleton  &  C*. 


Poetic  Interpretation  155 

tion  on  the  subject-matter.  It  is  unscientific. 
The  child  could  learn  poetry  by  the  yard,  he 
said,  and  yet  not  know  how  many  toes  the 
bobolink  has,  nor  the  shape  and  size  of  its 
wings.  The  pupil  gains  no  comparative  knowl- 
edge of  bird  with  bird.  The  poem  is  untrue. 
The  bobolink  is  not  "drest" :  he  has  no  clothes. 
He  has  no  wife:  he  is  mated,  not  wed. 

I  could  only  reply  that  the  bobolink's  toes 
have  little  relation  to  men's  lives,  however  much 
they  may  have  to  bobolinks'  lives;  but  the 
bobolink  may  mean  much  to  men's  lives.  To 
a  man  studying  ornithology — and  I  wish  there 
were  more — the  toes  are  important;  but  I 
am  seeking  a  fresh  and  firmer  hold  on  life. 
I  should  rather  know  the  song  of  the  bobolink 
than  to  know  all  about  the  structure  of  the  bird; 
of  course,  I  should  prefer  to  know  both,  if  I 
could.  To  be  sure,  I  should  study  the  bobolink 
before  I  studied  the  poem;  but  I  should  want  a 
real  bobolink,  not  a  stuffed  specimen.  If  I 
were  obliged  to  choose  between  lessons  on 
stuffed  bobolinks  and  the  poem,  I  should  take 
the  poem :  there  is  more  bobolink  in  it. 


156          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

I  like  Bryant's  lyric  because  it  catches  so 
much  of  the  life  of  a  bobolink.  A  scientific 
description  could  tell  the  facts  better,  but  only 
ornithologists  read  scientific  descriptions.  Yet 
I  have  always  wished  that  the  poet  had  told  the 
whole  story.  After  the  breeding  season  is  past, 
the  birds  gather  in  flocks  in  the  rice-fields  and 
reeds  of  the  South  and  are  then  known  as  rice- 
birds  and  reed-birds.  In  great  numbers  they 
are  slaughtered  for  the  market,  and  thereby  the 
bobolink  does  not  become  an  abundant  species 
in  the  North.  May  we  not  add: 

Far  in  the  South  he  gathers  his  clans, 

Nor  thinks  of  the  regions  of  ice; 
Too  early  yet  for  housekeeping  plans, 
He  rev'ls  and  gluttons  in  fields  of  rice. 
Rice-bird,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Hunter  is  waiting  under  the  bloom, 
Robert  of  Lincoln  falls  to  his  doom. 
Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Spring  comes:  swinging  on  brier  and  weed, 
Near  to  the  nest  of  his  little  dame, 


Poetic  Interpretation  157 

Over  the  mountain-side  and  mead, 

Another  proud  groom  is  telling  his  name: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
The  meadow  belongs  to  wife  and  me— 
Life  is  as  happy  as  life  can  be. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

This  is  the  age  of  fact,  and  we  are  glad  of 
it.  But  it  may  be  also  an  age  of  the  imagina- 
tion. There  need  be  no  divorce  of  fact  and 
fancy;  they  are  only  the  poles  of  experience. 
What  is  called  the  scientific  method  is  only 
imagination  trained  and  set  within  bounds. 
Compared  with  the  whole  mass  of  scientific 
attainment,  mere  fact  is  but  a  minor  part,  after 
all.  Facts  are  bridged  by  imagination.  They 
are  tied  together  by  the  thread  of  speculation 
and  hypothesis.  The  very  essence  of  science  is 
to  reason  from  the  known  to  the  unknown. 

There  can  be  no  objection  to  the  poetic  inter- 
pretation of  nature.  It  is  essential  only  that  the 
observation  be  correct  and  the  inference  reason- 
able, and  that  we  allow  it  only  at  proper  times. 
In  teaching  science  we  may  confine  ourselves  to 


158  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

scientific  formulas,  but  in  teaching  nature  we 
may  admit  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter.  If  I 
were  making  a  teacher's  program  for  the  study 
of  nature,  I  should  want  to  include  a  course  in 
English  poetry.  With  pupils,  however,  one 
must  be  careful  to  have  the  poem  exactly 
appropriate  to  the  subject  and  the  occasion. 

One  may  not  make  a  list  of  poems  that  are 
always  to  be  used  by  teachers  of  nature-study 
for  specified  topics.  The  choice  of  the  poem 
should  lie  with  the  particular  teacher  or  the 
pupils.  These  poems  should  be  used  sparingly, 
and  not  at  all  when  the  teacher  himself  does  not 
have  poetic  feeling  by  means  of  which  to  inter- 
pret them.  Better  no  poems  whatever  than  to 
have  manufactured  and  idle  sentiment.  The 
trouble  with  much  of  the  sentiment  is  that  it 
gives  us  a  wrong  point  of  view. 

In  our  day  of  science,  people  seem  to  be 
afraid  of  figures  of  speech.  The  scientist  for- 
bids us  to  personify;  and  this  is  well.  But  this 
spirit  may  be  carried  so  far  as  to  forbid  meta- 
phor and  to  condemn  parables.  Speech  can- 
not be  literally  accurate.  Even  astronomers  say 


Poetic  Interpretation  159 

that  the  sun  sets,  but  we  know  that  it  does  not. 
To  say  that  a  potato-plant  works  all  the  season 
in  order  to  provide  for  its  offspring  the  next  year 
is  said  to  give  a  wrong  conception  of  the  plant 
because  it  implies  motive.  But  does  this  pic- 
ture mislead  any  one?  Everybody  knows  that 
a  potato-plant  has  no  brains.  Everybody  knows 
that  the  statement  conveys  a  truth.  If  the 
phrase  is  not  justifiable,  then  it  is  a  question 
whether  I  may  say  that  a  potato  has  eyes. 
Much  of  the  objection  to  statements  of  this  kind 
is  mere  quibbling  (pp.  60,  120). 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  such  allegories 
must  be  true  in  spirit  and  in  their  teaching 
value.  Much  of  the  current  writing  of  plants 
and  animals  by  which  human  motives  are 
implied,  is  productive  of  harm;  but  we  should 
distinguish  between  metaphor,  or  mere  literary 
license,  and  an  untrue  point  of  view.  The  ulti- 
mate test  is  whether  the  reader  is  led  to  believe 
what  is  not  true.  An  animal  or  a  plant  may  be 
represented  as  telling  its  own  story  without  mis- 
leading any  one,  even  as  a  character  in  a  novel 
may  speak  in  the  first  person ;  we  need  not  imply 


160  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

human  motives  or  human  points  of  view  in  these 
cases:  there  remain  only  the  questions  as  to 
whether  this  is  really  good  literary  taste,  and 
whether  it  is  the  most  effective  way  to  reach  the 
audience  for  which  it  is  intended.  In  general, 
a  direct  and  lucid  presentation,  without  circum- 
locution and  invention,  is  to  be  preferred;  and 
this  direct  method  allows  of  the  full  expression 
of  sentiment  and  the  poetic  impulse. 

I  protest  against  that  teaching  of  nature  which 
runs  into  thin  sentimentalism,  which  makes  the 
"goody-goody"  part  of  the  work  so  prominent 
that  it  becomes  the  child's  point  of  view,  whether 
the  writing  is  in  prose  or  verse. 

The  spirit  of  science  lends  itself  well  to  song. 
The  concrete  is  not  unpoetic.  If  in  this  day  we 
apostrophize  and  personify  nature  less,  we  have 
improved  in  the  spirit  and  intimacy  of  our  song. 
The  point  of  view  gradually  has  shifted  from 
human  interest  in  natural  things  to  the  things 
themselves.  We  need  a  free  nature  poetry  that 
will  give  us  confidence  and  a  firm  hold  on  life. 


VII 

An  Outlook  on  Winter 

IN  the  bottom  of  the  valley  is  a  brook  that 
saunters  between  oozing  banks.  It  falls 
over  stones  and  dips  under  fences.  It  marks 
an  open  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the 
trees  and  soft  herbs  bend  their  branches  into 
the  sunlight.  The  hang-bird  swings  her  nest 
over  it.  Mossy  logs  are  crumbling  into  it. 
There  are  still  pools  where  the  minnows  play. 
The  brook  runs  away  and  away  into  the  forest. 
As  a  boy  I  explored  it  but  never  found  its 
source.  It  came  somewhere  from  the  Beyond 
and  its  name  was  Mystery. 

The  mystery  of  this  brook  was  its  changing 
moods.  It  had  its  own  way  of  recording  the 
passing  of  the  weeks  and  months.  I  remember 
never  to  have  seen  it  twice  in  the  same  mood, 
nor  to  have  got  the  same  lesson  from  it  on  two 
successive  days;  yet,  with  all  its  variety,  it 
always  left  that  same  feeling  of  mystery  and 
that  same  vague  longing  to  follow  to  its  source 

ii  161 


1 62  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

and  to  know  the  great  world  that  I  was  sure 
must  lie  beyond.  I  felt  that  the  brook  was 
greater  and  wiser  than  I.  It  became  my 
teacher.  I  wondered  how  it  knew  when  March 
came,  and  why  its  round  of  life  recurred  so 
regularly  with  the  returning  seasons.  I  remem- 
ber that  I  was  anxious  for  the  spring  to  come, 
that  I  might  see  it  again.  I  longed  for  the 
earthy  smell  when  the  snow  settled  away  and 
left  bare  brown  margins  along  its  banks.  I 
watched  for  the  suckers  that  came  up  from  the 
river  to  spawn.  I  made  a  note  when  the  first 
frog  peeped.  I  waited  for  the  unfolding  spray 
to  soften  the  bare  trunks.  I  watched  the  green- 
ing of  the  banks  and  looked  eagerly  for  the 
bluebird  when  I  heard  his  curling  note  some- 
where high  in  the  air. 

Yet,  with  all  my  familiarity  with  this  brook, 
I  did  not  know  it  in  the  winter.  Its  pathway 
up  into  the  winter  woods  was  as  unexplored  as 
the  arctic  regions.  Somehow,  it  was  not  a 
brook  in  the  winter  time.  It  was  merely  a 
dreary  waste,  as  cold  and  as  forbidding  as 


An  Outlook  on  Winter  163 

death.     The  winter  was  only  a  season  of  wait- 
ing, and  spring  was  always  late. 

Many  years  have  come  and  gone  since  then. 
My  affection  for  the  brook  gave  way  to  a  study 
of -plants  and  animals  and  stones.  For  years  I 
was  absorbed  in  phenomena.  But  now  mere 
phenomena  and  materials  have  slipped  into  a 
secondary  place,  and  the  old  boyhood  slowly 
reasserts  itself.  I  am  sure  that  I  know  the 
brook  the  better  because  I  know  more  about  the 
things  that  live  in  its  little  world;  yet  that  same 
mystery  pervades  it  and  there  is  that  same  long- 
ing for  the  things  that  lie  beyond.  I  remember 
that  in  the  old  days  I  did  not  mind  the  rain  and 
the  sleet  when  visiting  the  brook.  I  was  not 
conscious  that  they  were  not  a  part  of  the  brook 
itself.  It  was  only  when  I  began  to  dress  up 
that  the  rain  annoyed  me.  I  must  make  a 
proper  appearance  before  the  world.  From 
that  time  the  brook  and  I  grew  farther  apart. 
We  are  coming  together  again  now.  It  is  no 
misdemeanor  to  get  wet  if  you  feel  that  you  are 
not  spoiling  your  clothing.  One's  happiness  is 
largely  a  question  of  clothes. 


164          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

But  the  brook  is  one  degree  the  better  now 
just  because  it  remains  a  brook  all  winter.  The 
winter  is  the  best  season  of  the  four  because 
there  is  more  mystery  in  it.  There  is  a  new  and 
strange  spirit  in  the  air.  There  are  strange 
bird-calls  in  the  depths  of  the  still  white  woods. 
There  are  strange  marks  in  the  new-fallen  snow. 
There  are  soft  noises  when  the  snow  drops  from 
the  trees.  There  are  grotesque  figures  on  the 
old  fence.  There  is  the  warm  brown  pathway 
of  the  brook  still  winding  up  between  oozing 
banks.  In  the  spring  there  are  troops  of  flower- 
gatherers  along  the  brook.  In  the  summer 
there  are  fishers  at  the  deep  pools.  In  the  fall 
there  are  nut-gatherers  and  aimless  wanderers. 
In  the  winter  the  brook  and  I  are  alone.  We 
know. 

Most  of  us,  I  fear,  look  on  winter  with 
some  feeling  of  dread  and  apprehension.  It  is 
to  be  endured.  This  feeling  it  partly  clue  to 
the  immense  change  that  comes  with  the  ap- 
proach of  winter.  The  trees  are  bare.  The 
leaves  are  drifting  into  the  fence-rows.  The 
birds  have  flown.  The  deserted  country  roads 


An  Outlook  on  Winter  165 

stretch  away  into  leaden  skies.  The  lines  of 
the  landscape  become  hard  and  sharp.  Gusty 
winds  scurry  over  the  fields.  It  is  the  turn  of 
the  year. 

To  many  persons,  however,  the  dread  of 
winter,  or  the  lack  of  enjoyment  in  it,  is  a  ques- 
tion of  weather.  We  speak  of  bad  weather,  as 
if  weather  ever  could  be  bad.  Weather  is  not 
a  human  institution,  and  it  is  not  to  be  measured 
by  human  standards.  There  is  strength  and 
mighty  uplift  in  the  roaring  winds  that  go  rois- 
tering over  the  winter  hills.  The  cold  and  the 
storm  are  a  part  of  winter,  as  the  warmth  and 
the  soft  rain  are  a  part  of  summer.  Persons 
who  find  happiness  in  the  out-of-doors  only  in 
what  we  call  pleasant  weather  have  not  found 
the  great  joys  of  the  open  fields. 

We  speak  of  winter  as  bare,  but  this  is  only 
a  contrast  with  summer.  In  the  summer  all 
things  are  familiar  and  close;  the  depths  are 
covered.  The  view  is  restricted.  We  see 
things  near  by.  In  the  winter  things  are 
uncovered.  Old  objects  have  new  forms. 
There  are  new  curves  in  the  roadway  through 


166  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

the  forest.  There  are  steeper  undulations  in 
the  footpath.  Even  when  the  snow  lies  deep 
on  the  earth,  the  ground-line  carries  the  eye 
into  strange  distances.  You  look  far  down 
into  the  heart  of  the  woods.  You  feel  the 
strength  and  resoluteness  of  the  framework  of 
the  trees.  You  see  the  corners  and  angles  of 
the  rocks.  You  discover  the  trail  that  was  lost 
in  the  summer.  You  look  clear  through  the 
weedy  tangle.  You  find  new  knot-holes  in  the 
tree-trunks.  You  penetrate  to  the  very  depths. 
You  analyze,  and  gain  insight. 

Many  times  in  warm  countries  I  have  been 
told  that  the  climate  has  transcendent  merit 
because  there  is  no  winter.  But  to  me  this  lack 
is  its  disadvantage.  There  are  things  to  see, 
things  to  do,  things  to  think  about  in  the  winter 
as  in  the  spring.  There  is  interest  in  the  winter 
wayside,  in  the  hibernating  insects,  in  the  few 
hardy  birds,  and  the  deserted  nests,  in  the  fret- 
work of  the  weeds  against  the  snow,  in  the 
strong  outlines  of  the  trees,  in  the  snow-shapes, 
in  the  cold  deep  sky.  To  many  persons  these 
strong  alternations  of  the  seasons  emphasize 


An  Outlook  on  Winter  167 

and  punctuate  the  life.  They  are  the  moun- 
tains and  the  valleys.  The  winter  is  a  part  of 
the  naturalist's  year. 

The  lesson  is  that  our  interest  in  the  out-of- 
doors  should  be  a  perennial  current  that  over- 
flows from  a  fountain  that  lies  deep  within  us. 
This  interest  is  colored  and  modified  by  every 
passing  season,  but  fundamentally  it  is  beyond 
time  and  place.  Winter  or  no  winter,  it  mat- 
ters not :  the  fields  lie  beyond. 


PART  III 

Comprising  a  budget  of  replies  to  many 
questions  of  school  people 


Inquiries  and  Answers 

PRACTICAL  problems  confront  the  teacher. 
However  well  he  may  understand  the 
theory  and  however  fully  he  may  agree  with  it, 
a  new  difficulty  arises  every  time  that  he  at- 
tempts to  teach.  A  child  will  ask  a  question 
that  a  philosopher  cannot  answer;  but  on  every 
question  the  teacher  must  have  a  point  of  view. 
I  frequently  speak  to  teachers  on  means  of 
teaching  nature-study.  For  the  time  they  are 
pupils  and  they  ask  questions:  I  am  obliged  to 
take  a  point  of  view,  and  some  of  these  opinions 
I  have  made  note  of  at  the  time.  Questions 
come  in  the  mail.  Some  of  these  many  inquiries 
and  answers  are  here  reprinted,  not  because  they 
may  be  correct,  but  because  they  may  be  sug- 
gestive; and  it  will  not  matter  if  they  repeat  or 
expand  some  of  the  statements  on  the  earlier 
pages. 

How  shall  I  know  what  subjects  to  choose? 
Let  the  children  choose  the  subject  now  and 
then.     Let  them  collect  the  specimens. 


172  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

But  they  may  bring  things  of  which  the 
teacher  knows  nothing.  So  much  the  better! 
These  are  sometimes  best  for  nature-study. 
They  leave  the  largest  interrogation  point. 
From  any  subject  the  teacher  can  develop  a  fact. 
If  he  does  not  know  the  interpretation,  say  so : 
the  pupils  will  be  the  more  interested  (p.  44). 
The  teacher  will  not  lose  standing  by  the  con- 
fession, if  he  is  honest.  Persons  lose  standing 
by  pretending  to  know  what  they  do  not  know 
'  and  by  being  caught  at  it.  The  child  is  relieved 
to  know  that  there  is  something  yet  to  be  dis- 
covered. 

In  general,  choose  the  subjects  you  are  best 
prepared  to  teach  and  that  best  express  or  touch 
the  conditions  in  which  your  pupils  live. 
Whatever  the  subject,  be  careful  to  teach  it 
simply  and  with  the  least  apparent  effort.  Do 
not  elaborate  too  much,  or  inject  too  much  bor- 
rowed information.  Always  tie  to  the  object  or 
the  materials.  Do  not  teach  zoology  without 
animals,  botany  without  plants,  geography  with- 
out knowing  the  earth,  astronomy  without  stars, 


Inquiries  and  Answers  173 

any  more  than  you  would  teach  grammar  with- 
out language. 

But  if  the  child  choose  the  material,  the  sub- 
ject will  lack  continuity:  what  then? 

Nature  is  not  consecutive  except  in  her 
periods.  She  puts  things  together  in  a  mosaic. 
She  has  a  brook  and  plants  and  toads  and  insects 
and  the  weather  all  together.  Because  we  have 
put  the  plants  in  one  book,  the  brooks  in 
another,  and  the  bugs  in  another,  we  have  come 
to  think  that  this  divorce  is  the  logical  and 
necessary  order. 

If  all  the  things  mentioned  above  are  taught, 
then  the  life  of  the  brook  will  be  the  thread  that 
ties  them  all  together  (p.  45).  It  is  well  to 
introduce  the  pupil  to  a  wide  range  of  material, 
in  order  to  increase  his  points  of  contact  with  the 
world. 

Then  would  you  give  no  heed  to  continuity? 

How  much  or  how  little  the  continuity  will 
depend  on  the  teacher  and  the  circumstance. 
With  children,  the  temptation  is  to  have  too 
much  rather  than  too  little  continuity.  First  of 
all,  we  must  develop  the  child's  experience. 


174  The  Nature-Study  Idea 
The  higher  the  grade,  the  more  the  topics  may 
be  correlated  and  coordinated.  I  doubt  whether 
a  closely  graded  nature-study  is  really  nature- 
study  at  all.  For  children,  I  believe  in  that 
continuity  and  consecutiveness  that  relate  the 
subject  to  its  place  and  season.  In  April,  cor- 
relate the  work  with  the  opening  of  the  spring; 
in  October,  with  the  coming  of  winter.  Com- 
pare the  nature-study  of  June  with  that  of  May. 
Relate  it  to  the  farm  work  or  other  activities 
of  the  neighborhood.  With  living  things,  the 
cycle  of  the  year  is  the  fundamental  continuity. 
Life-history  is  continuity.  The  procession  of 
nature  continues  the  work. 

Should  nature-study  give  way  to  "funda- 
mental" work? 

[Suggestions  in  reply  to  a  foreign  corre- 
spondent who  asks  whether  we  succeed  in 
America  in  "getting  good  nature-study  in  one- 
teacher  schools";  what  attitude  we  take  toward 
"the  old-fashioned  object-lesson  work" ;  whether 
teachers  are  not  in  "great  danger  of  forgetting 


Inquiries  and  Answers  175 

that  much  of  the  most  fundamental  nature- 
study  concerns  dead  matter,  e.g.,  the  simple 
chemical  and  physical  changes  that  water  and 
air  undergo  in  relation  to  daily  life."] 

If  nature-study  is  a  way  of  teaching,  then  we 
ought  not  to  expect  ever  to  arrive  at  a  complete 
agreement  of  opinion  and  practice.  At  the 
present  time  we  are  not  even  united  on  the 
fundamental  educational  questions  involved, 
although  we  are  gradually  coming  nearer  to  a 
consensus  of  opinion. 

Many  persons  expect  to  find  in  the  United 
States  a  great  number  of  schools  in  which  nature- 
study  is  taught,  meaning  by  that  to  find  separate 
classes  set  aside  for  this  particular  kind  of 
work.  In  very  many  schools  this  will  be  found; 
but  I  suspect  the  greatest  results  in  the  end  are 
to  come  when  the  nature-study  mode  or  method 
runs  through  the  teaching  of  all  the  accustomed 
subjects  in  the  school,  gradually  reorganizing 
and  revitalizing  them  (p.  10). 

A  school  with  one  teacher  can  handle  nature- 
study  work  as  well  as  the  school  with  twenty 


176          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

teachers  if  the  teacher  arrives  at  the  nature- 
study  way  of  teaching.  I  mean  by  this  that 
the  quality  of  the  teaching  may  be  good,  quite 
independent  of  its  quantity.  Of  course,  we  do 
not  find  a  subject  or  a  class  under  the  name  of 
nature-study  in  the  one-teacher  schools  to  any 
extent.  What  I  mean  by  the  nature-study  spirit 
is  to  teach  the  things  nearest  at  hand  in  a 
natural  way  and  with  the  welfare  of  the  child 
always  in  mind. 

I  am  sure  that  it  is  perfectly  possible  to  teach 
a  child  correctly  and  to  put  him  into  direct  and 
sympathetic  touch  with  the  world  he  lives  in  by 
beginning  with  the  biological  and  general  phases 
of  his  environment  even  though  he  does  not 
know  the  underlying  chemical  and  physical 
processes  and  reasons.  In  fact,  I  am  convinced 
that  we  must  give  up  the  idea  that  the  child  at 
first  must  know  the  so-called  fundamental  pro- 
cesses before  he  can  know  objects  and  phe- 
nomena. As  a  matter  of  fact,  not  one  of  us  in 
the  world,  even  the  best  of  us,  really  knows 
the  fundamental  facts.  We  have  merely  gone 
a  little  further  than  some  others  have  gone, 


Inquiries  and  Answers  177 

but  in  the  end  everything  is  relative.  If  our 
first  object  is  to  develop  the  child  and  to 
train  his  capacities  and  sympathies,  then  it  may 
not  be  necessary  at  all  to  begin  with  the  under- 
lying or  internal  reasons  of  things.  These  rea- 
sons will  come  out  as  the  child  grows  and  as  his 
mind  is  able  to  grasp  them. 

I  hope  that  we  are  rapidly  passing  through 
the  epoch  of  mere  object-teaching.  It  has  very 
narrow  limitations  as  ordinarily  taught,  because 
it  has  had  no  vital  relation  to  the  child  or  to 
the  life  that  he  is  to  lead.  Merely  to  study  an 
object  may  or  may  not  be  of  value  in  the  train- 
ing of  the  child.  If  that  object  has  some  rela- 
tion to  the  life  that  the  child  is  living  so  that 
it  will  be  meaningful  to  him,  it  ought  to  have 
direct  value  in  interesting  him  and  in  being 
made  a  means  of  drawing  him  out  into  larger 
growth. 

From  these  remarks  it  will  be  seen  that  we 
need  not  "replace"  some  of  the  "fundamental 
work,"  as  you  phrase  it,  by  nature-study.  I 
would  have  all  work,  fundamental  and  otherwise 
(including  "the  simple  chemical  and  physical 

12 


178  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

changes  that  water  and  air  undergo  in  relation 
to  daily  life"),  taught  in  the  nature-study  spirit. 

What  is  the  proper  pedagogical  starting-point 
for  nature-study? 

[Reply  to  an  inquiry  from  an  officer  in  a 
normal  college,  who  is  urged  to  develop  the 
nature-study  in  accordance  with  a  pedagogical 
hypothesis.  He  is  advised  as  follows,  and  he 
asks  an  opinion: 

"The  first  advice  is  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  biologist,  that  the  child  repeats  the  history 
of  the  race  and  therefore  should  go  to  that 
place  in  history  for  material  which  will  corre- 
spond with  the  stage  through  which  the  child 
is  passing.  The  nature-study  work  would  be 
based  upon  this  idea  and  the  history  and  litera- 
ture chosen  as  nearly  as  possible  from  the  stages 
through  which  the  child  may  be  passing  at  a 
given  time. 

"The  other  point  of  view  makes  the  child's 
present  environment  the  standpoint  for  getting 
everything,  and  the  child  with  this  as  a  basis 
looks  back  upon  and  studies  the  life  through 


Inquiries  and  Answers  179 

which  the  race  has  passed.  The  first  point  of 
view  is  really  an  application  of  the  culture-epoch 
theory  in  many  ways  except  that  some  of  our 
people  wish  to  use  nature-study  as  the  starting 
point  instead  of  literature  and  history."] 

I  do  not  consider  myself  competent  to  answer 
any  questions  on  abstract  theories  of  pedagogy. 
I  did  not  come  to  my  present  work  through 
that  route.  My  educational  .Qutlook  has  de- 
veloped personally  and  is  founded  essentially 
on  the  needs  of  the  child,  as  I  have  been  able  to 
estimate  those  needs,  without  reference  to  peda- 
gogical theory.  I  have  heard  discussions  of 
the  culture-epoch  theory  and  other  hypotheses 
of  the  psychology  of  education,  but  I  am  always 
obliged  to  come  back  to  the  simple  fact  that  the 
child  lives  in  a  real  environment  and  that  this 
environment  should  be  known  to  him  and  appre- 
ciated by  him.  I  do  not  depreciate  the  value  of 
the  psychological  theories,  but  I  am  not  able 
properly  to  place  the  nature-study  work  with 
reference  to  them. 

I  should  teach  the  child's  world  as  he  knows 
it,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  know  it 


180          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

better  and  to  understand  it.  I  should  establish 
the  child  in  his  own  life  and  anchor  the  school 
to  the  actual  necessities  of  the  community. 
From  this  starting  point,  I  go  backward  or 
forward  as  the  necessities  of  the  case  seem  to 
demand,  without  any  particular  reference  to  the 
abstract  psychology  of  the  process.  The  child 
is  not  conscious  of  his  place  in  the  history  of 
the  race  until  he  is  told  of  it;  and  when  he  is 
told  of  it,  it  is  a  bit  of  extraneous  and  exotic 
information,  the  same  as  any  other  extrinsic 
information  is.  Of  course,  the  child  can  be 
greatly  interested  in  this  fact,  as  he  can  be  in 
any  other  fact  or  set  of  facts  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  a  first-class  teacher;  but  this  of  itself 
does  not  appeal  to  me  as  being  sufficient  reason 
for  instituting  a  method.  From  the  teacher's 
side,  I  doubt  whether  it  is  good  practice  to  use 
the  child  as  a  means  of  working  out  an 
hypothesis.  It  is  natural  that  every  specialist 
should  consider  his  subject  to  be  the  center  of 
the  circle. 

I  should  begin  with  the  common  and  apparent 
facts  of  our  existence  and  conditions,  or  with  the 


Inquiries  and  Answers  181 

next-at-hand ;  beginning  at  home,  I  should  pur- 
sue the  exploration,  and  try  to  educate  the  child 
by  the  process. 

How  shall  I  make  a  start? 

Persons  hesitate,  fearing  that  they  will  make 
a  mistake.  A  teacher  asked  me  the  other 
day  where  he  should  begin  with  nature-work. 
He  had  been  considering  the  matter  for  two  or 
three  years,  he  said,  but  did  not  know  how  to 
undertake  it.  I  replied,  Begin!  Head  end, 
tail  end,  in  the  middle — but  Begin !  There  are 
two  essential  epochs  in  any  enterprise — to  begin, 
and  to  get  done. 

For  the  first  lesson,  choose  the  natural  object 
that  you  know  most  about.  Every  teacher  has 
sufficient  knowledge  of  one  subject  to  afford  one 
good  nature-study  lesson.  The  second  lesson 
will  take  care  of  itself. 

If  you  are  a  principal,  supervisor  or  other 
administrative  officer  and  are  thinking  of  start- 
ing off  a  movement  in  all  the  schools  in  a  city 
or  a  commissioner's  district  or  in  a  county,  first 


182  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

choose  your  teachers.  Choose  those  that  have 
enthusiasm  and  "good  spirit"  and  that  are  not 
tied  hand  and  foot  to  customary  methods. 
Choose  the  fearless  teachers — the  ones  that  are 
anxious  to  arouse  the  pupils  even  though  they 
do  not  do  it  by  the  book.  Then  give  these 
teachers  one  good  lesson  yourself.  Or,  if  you 
cannot  give  the  lesson,  put  in  their  hands  one 
good  nature-study  leaflet.  Choose  the  leaflet 
as  you  would  a  teacher — for  cheery  outlook, 
energy,  and  directness  of  expression.  Choose 
a  leaflet  that  sends  the  teacher  directly  to  nature ; 
you  do  not  want  stories.  Choose  the  leaflet 
that  has  snap  and  spirit,  not  mere  information. 
It  should  be  attractive  in  subject-matter  and  in 
mechanical  execution.  Never  put  a  cheaply 
illustrated  and  poorly  printed  leaflet  before  a 
pupil.  Remember  that  children  are  optimists, 
and  that  they  want  the  best  in  both  teacher  and 
leaflet.  Let  the  teacher  study  the  object  and 
the  leaflet  until  the  subject  is  mastered.  When 
the  teacher  is  full  of  the  subject,  he  cannot  help 
teaching. 

If  you    are    fortunate    enough   to   have   the 


/ 


Inquiries  and  Answers  183 

starting  of  a  nature-study  movement  for  a  State 
or  other  large  territory,  buy  a  small  quantity 
of  one  of  the  best  leaflets  you  can  find.  If  you 
do  not  have  the  money,  borrow  it.  Send  a  note 
to  the  newspapers  to  the  effect  that  any  teachers 
who  wish  to  take  up  nature-study  work  may 
write  you  for  literature  and  advice.  All  the 
rest  will  work  itself  out.  Money  will  come 
from  some  source.  Soon  you  will  be  publish- 
ing leaflets  of  your  own;  but  be  careful  who 
writes  them. 

Beware  of  putting  your  trust  in  leaflets  alone. 
Follow  them  up  with  correspondence  and  other 
personal  work.  The  leaflet  will  not  work  of 
itself.  It  will  soon  be  forgotten  unless  you 
keep  the  spirit  and  the  enthusiasm  alive. 
Organize  your  teachers  and  your  children. 
Keep  at  it. 

How  may  I  secure  permission  from  my  prin- 
cipal to  teach  nature-study? 

This  inquiry  I  cannot  answer,  for  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  the  personal  point  of  view  of  the  super- 
vising officer,  and  possibly  also  of  your  own 


184          The  Nature- Study  Idea 

qualification.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many 
good  nature-study  teachers  are  repressed  and 
spoiled  by  principals,  supervisors  and  trustees; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  many  persons  who  think 
they  can  teach  nature-study  are  self-deceived. 
Perhaps  your  superior  has  been  prejudiced 
against  the  work  by  poor  teaching  on  the  part 
of  some  former  teacher;  it  is  scarcely  possible 
that  he  could  be  now-a-days  opposed  to  it  on 
principle.  If  he  is  opposed  on  principle,  there 
is  probably  nothing  to  do  except  to  wait  or  to 
change  your  place.  If  he  has  had  experience 
of  shoddy  work,  you  should  ask  him  the  privi- 
lege of  giving  a  few  lessons  on  trial,  or  should 
call  his  attention  to  the  work  or  writing  of  a 
successful  teacher.  Perhaps  your  work  with 
children  at  their  homes  would  interest  him.  I 
think  that  most  of  the  opposition  to  this  teach- 
ing on  the  part  of  principals  and  superintendents 
is  the  result  of  misapprehension  of  what  good 
nature-work  is;  it  should  be  the  pride  of  nature- 
study  teachers  to  correct  this  feeling  by  doing 
the  very  best  kind  of  work. 


Inquiries  and  Answers  185 

Would  you  teach  heat,  light  and  physics  as 
nature-study  topics? 

Not  as  these  subjects  are  ordinarily  taught. 
They  are  usually  taught  as  abstractions,  having 
little  relation  to  the  pupil's  life.  There  are 
many  phenomena  in  these  fields  that  are  within 
the  range  of  the  pupil's  experience,  and  these 
may  be  useful  in  the  hands  of  a  good  teacher. 
The  best  results  will  be  secured,  by  most 
teachers,  by  confining  nature-study  rather  closely 
to  biological  fields  and  to  those  earth-  and  sky- 
subjects  that  are  most  intimately  associated,  in 
the  child's  mind,  with  the  outside  world.  Many 
of  the  phenomena  in  this  outside  world  are 
physical,  and  I  would  not  exclude  them;  but  I 
once  knew  a  teacher  who  began  nature-study 
for  children  with  a  disquisition  on  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy! 

Would  you  teach  "practical"  and  "useful" 
things?  (See  pp.  32,  97,  113.) 

Yes,  if  the  things  are  such  as  appeal  to  the 
child  and  are  adapted  to  the  conditions.  No, 
if  they  do  not  meet  these  requirements.  In 


i86          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

other  words,  I  should  not  choose  them  merely 
because  they  are  "useless"  or  "useful  to  man." 
I  should  want  the  child  to  have  a  wider  horizon 
and  a  truer  view  of  nature.  The  prime  requisite 
is  that  the  child  become  interested  in  the  being 
itself,  whether  that  being  chance  to  be  "in- 
jurious" or  "beneficial."  We  must  be  careful 
not  to  dwarf  the  sympathies  by  purposely  con- 
fining our  work  to  those  things  that  have  "use." 
It  is  an  error  to  assume  that  all  the  things  in  the 
world  are  important  only  as  they  relate  to  the 
financial  profit  and  the  pleasure  of  man. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  should  not  neglect  the 
"practical"  things  just  because  they  are  prac- 
tical and  familiar.  A  horse,  cow,  pig,  chicken, 
potatoes,  wheat,  cotton,  alfalfa,  and  the  rest, 
are  excellent  nature-study  material,  not  only 
because  they  are  intrinsically  as  interesting  as 
other  plants  and  animals,  but  also  because  they 
are  common  and  therefore  near  to  our  lives. 
Familiarity  should  not  breed  contempt. 

What  one  shall  teach  is  determined  very 
largely,  of  course,  by  the  text-books  in  use  in 
the  school.  The  commonest  fault  that  my 


Inquiries  and  Answers  187 

informers  find  with  text-books  is  that  they  have 
little  relation  to  life;  or  as  the  persons  them- 
selves are  likely  to  put  it,  the  books  are  not 
"practical."  I  do  not  like  to  use  this  word 
"practical,"  because  it  has  been  employed  in 
such  a  way  as  to  arouse  the  antagonism  of  good 
teachers.  Used  in  its  original  and  legitimate 
sense  it  is  well  enough;  but  in  order  that  the 
larger  idea  may  be  expressed,  I  like  to  say  that 
text-books  ought  to  be  "applicable."  The  word 
practical  is  likely  to  connote  merely  dollars-and- 
cents  information  for  the  time  being  or  for  the 
place.  The  word  applicable  is  more  central, 
making  the  whole  course  of  treatment,  rather 
than  a  few  isolated  facts,  significant  to  the  life 
and  interests  of  the  pupil.  The  rigid  text-book 
has  been  imposed  on  the  schools  by  the  colleges. 
With  the  emancipation  of  the  schools,  there 
should  come  a  greater  dominance  on  their  part 
in  educational  policies.  If  the  schools  do  not 
exist  for  the  colleges,  then  it  is  very  evident 
that  a  type  of  text-book  that  does  not  lead 
college-ward  may  be  needed  for  the  common 
schools;  and  this  book  will  apply  to  the  daily  life. 


1 88  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Would  you  teach  objects  that  the  child  can- 
not see  and  determine  for  itself? 

No!  Right  here  is  where  much  of  our 
nature-study  effort  shoots  wide  of  the  mark. 
The  child  should  be  set  at  those  things  that  are 
within  its  own  sphere  and  within  the  range  of 
its  powers.  Much  so-called  nature-study  teach- 
ing is  merely  telling  the  child  what  some  man 
has  found  out.  Bacteria,  sheep's  brains,  com- 
plicated life-histories,  chemical  changes  in  germi- 
nation, pollination,  yeast,  fermentation — these 
and  a  hundred  others  are  beyond  the  child's 
realm. 

How  much  apparatus  do  I  need? 

Perhaps  none;  possibly  some.  The  appa- 
ratus and  the  method  may  easily  be  made  too 
perfect.  Any  elaborate  scheme  or  equipment 
is  likely  to  be  depressing  to  those  who  are  less 
fortunately  situated,  if  they  are  to  teach.  A 
laboratory  in  a  teacher's  training-school  may  be 
so  extensive  and  complete  that  the  graduates  do 
not  take  up  efficient  work  for  themselves,  feel- 
ing that  they  cannot  do  so  without  much  equip- 


Inquiries  and  Answers  189 

ment.  Make  the  most  of  common  and  simple 
subjects,  and  leave  the  extensive  outfits  to 
teachers  of  science.  Two  pieces  of  apparatus 
that  you  ought  to  have  are  an  aquarium  for 
things  that  live  in  water  and  a  terrarium  for 
those  that  live  on  land.  These  become  "scenes 
of  life"  and  supplement  the  outdoors.  (Sec 
p.  229). 

Is  it  "thorough"? 

"I  do  not  believe  in  your  nature-study  move- 
ment," a  high-school  teacher  said,  "for  it  does 
not  lead  to  thoroughness  in  school  work." 
I  asked  her  to  explain  what  she  meant  by 
thoroughness.  She  took  me  to  her  schoolroom. 
It  was  a  laboratory.  Pupils  of  sixteen  and 
seventeen  were  studying  the  cell.  For  three 
weeks  the  pupils  had  been  working  on  the  cell, 
and  they  were  to  continue  the  work  for  a  month. 
This,  she  told  me,  was  thoroughness.  I  agreed 
with  her.  "But  of  what  educational  value  is 
this  knowledge  to  the  pupil?"  I  asked.  "The 
pupil  knows  the  cell,"  she  replied,  "and  to  know 
the  cell  is  to  understand  the  structure  and 
growth  of  the  plant." 


190          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

We  all  believe  in  thoroughness,  but  there  is 
one  thoroughness  of  mere  details  and  another 
thoroughness  of  the  broader  view.  So  far  as 
mere  thoroughness  is  concerned,  one  kind  may 
be  as  perfect  as  the  other.  Thoroughness  con- 
sists only  in  seeing  something  accurately  and 
understanding  what  it  means.  We  can  never 
know  all  that  there  is  to  be  learned  about  any 
object.  Even  the  months'  work  on  the  cell  was 
a  mere  smattering.  Men  spend  their  lives  in 
studying  the  cell,  and  then  do  not  understand  it. 
What  most  school  teachers  mean  by  thorough- 
ness is  only  drill  in  details.  In  its  proper  time 
and  place,  I  approve  this  kind  of  drill  in  mere 
detail,  but  its  place  is  not  to  dominate  the 
school  work. 

But  the  great  objection  to  my  teacher's  work 
on  the  cell,  as  I  see  it,  is  the  fact  that  it  means 
little  or  nothing  to  the  pupil's  life  and  is  a  mere 
acquirement.  We  should  put  the  child  in  con- 
tact with  its  own  life,  and  the  teacher  who  does 
this  may  teach  with  thoroughness  whether  he 
teach  much  or  little.  We  can  always  be  thor- 
ough and  decisive  as  far  as  we  go. 


Inquiries  and  Answers  191 

But  will  not  this  nature-study  be  called 
superficial?  (See  pp.  60-61,  119.) 

No  doubt.  A  botanist  told  me  that  I  was 
doing  superficial  work.  Judged  from  the  view- 
point of  research,  perhaps  he  was  right;  but  I 
was  not  teaching  science.  Judged  from  the 
view-point  of  the  child,  I  hope  he  was  wrong. 
One  is  not  superficial  merely  because  he  does 
not  strike  deep  into  subject-matter.  He  should 
try  to  be  accurate  as  far  as  he  goes.  What  is 
superficiality  in  the  specialist  may  be  com- 
mendable thoroughness  in  the  layman.  Even 
the  specialist  is  satisfied  with  the  most  super- 
ficial knowledge  in  subjects  outside  his  specialty. 
His  knowledge  of  men  and  of  business,  for 
example,  is  likely  to  be  superficial. 

This  charge  of  superficiality  is  usually  only 
the  opinion  of  a  different  point  of  view.  This 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  critical  reviews  of  ele- 
mentary text-books  of  science.  Books  that 
have  been  criticized  severely  by  the  scientist 
have  been  accepted  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
schoolmaster.  The  primary  merit  of  a  school- 


192          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

book  lies  in  its  pedagogy  rather  than  in  its 
science.  Statements  in  such  books  have  two 
values  —  the  teaching  value  and  the  science 
value.  Too  often  the  reviewer  thinks  only  of 
the  science  value. 

Of  course  there  is  danger  of  superficiality. 
There  is  this  danger  in  everything;  but  the 
danger  is  inherent  in  the  person,  not  in  the  sub- 
ject. Solid  work  is  as  necessary  in  nature- 
study  as  in  anything  else.  It  is  not  play,  it  is 
not  sentimentality,  and  it  is  not  blind  wonder. 


not  this  nature-study  tend  still  further 
to  over-burden  the  school? 

The  overburdening  of  the  school  hours  is  due 
as  much  to  the  fact  that  the  old  subjects  do  not 
give  way  as  that  new  ones  are  introduced.  The 
old  schools  had  too  little  variety.  Perhaps  the 
new  ones  have  too  much  congestion.  Just  now 
we  are  in  an  intermediate  stage  between  the  old 
and  the  new.  Nature-study  is  not  a  new  sub- 
ject demanding  a  place:  it  is  a  point  of  view 
asserting  itself.  It  is  an  attitude  toward  life, 


Inquiries  and  Answers  193 

and  expresses  itself  in  a  way  of  teaching.  Its 
spirit  will  eventually  pervade  and  vitalize  all 
school  work. 

It  is  some  comfort  to  know  that  our  school 
hours  are  now  full.  They  cannot  be  fuller. 
If  other  things  are  added,  old  subjects  must 
drop  out.  It  is  a  struggle  for  existence.  By 
introducing  a  freer  treatment  into  some  of  the 
existing  subjects,  nature-study  should  relieve  the 
congestion  rather  than  increase  it.  If  nature- 
study  becomes  a  burden,  it  is  likely  to  be  because 
the  teacher  tries  to  teach  too  much  and  makes 
too  hard  work  of  it,  or  does  not  properly  relate 
it  to  the  other  school  work. 

We  still  hear  of  many  teachers  who  cannot 
find  time  to  "introduce"  nature-study;  on  the 
other  hand  we  find  many  others,  just  as  busy, 
who  are  able  to  flavor  the  whole  school  with  it. 
If  we  accept  that  the  nature-study  spirit  must 
be  an  attitude  and  a  direction  of  thinking,  then 
it  does  not  at  all  follow  that  best  results  are  to 
be  secured  merely  by  adding  it  as  a  separate 
period  or  task.  The  nature-study  idea  is  some- 
thing deeper  and  finer  than  simply  another  addi- 
13 


194          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

tion  to   the   course   of  study,   coordinate  with 
customary  school  work. 

We  may  need  to  take  out  subjects  rather  than 
put  them  in,  and  make  every  one  of  those  that 
remain  mean  more.  In  time,  the  beginning 
schools  will  probably  not  teach  any  of  the 
present-day  subjects  under  their  present  names; 
but  this  will  adjust  itself  in  the  natural  course 
of  evolution.  The  greatest  need  is  to  reor- 
ganize the  teaching  of  the  subjects  that  are 
already  in  the  country  schools. 

Shall  we  teach  the  child  to  collect,  and  thereby 
to  kill?  (See  pp.  32,  67,  70-71,  77,  122.) 

Properly  directed,  the  collecting  spirit  should 
be  encouraged,  because  one  never  comes  closely 
into  contact  with  his  materials  till  he  collects 
them  with  his  own  hands.  To  be  close  to  one's 
material,  develops  enthusiasm  and  works  itself 
into  one's  character.  Every  person  should  know 
the  joy  of  finding  something  new. 

How  much  or  how  little  the  collecting  habit 
shall  be  encouraged  must  be  determined  for 
each  case  by  itself;  but,  in  general,  the  child 


Inquiries  and  Answers  195 

should  be  taught  to  respect  the  life  of  every 
creature.  Collecting  should  be  an  incident, 
particularly  with  very  young  children,  and  it 
should  be  encouraged  only  when  it  has  some 
definite  purpose.  The  spirit  of  savagery  should 
be  discouraged.  I  do  not  like  to  encourage 
young  children  to  "catch  things"  for  the  mere 
excitement  of  catching  them,  but  to  study  the 
habits  of  things  as  they  are.  I  have  little  sym- 
pathy with  the  development  of  shallow  senti- 
mentalism  regarding  the  life  of  animals  and 
plants;  but  it  is  a  safe  principle,  with  children, 
to  respect  the  life  of  everything,  and  to  dis- 
courage the  spirit  of  the  hunter. 

How  may  we  develop  the  humane  attitude 
toward  living  things? 

In  reply  to  your  letter,  asking  how  I  would 
advise  the  teaching  of  "humane  education"  in 
the  schools,  I  will  say  that  I  should  let  such 
teaching  come  as  a  result  of  a  natural  and  well- 
directed  development  of  the  child.  I  should 
not  teach  tenderness,  sympathy  and  morality 
directly  as  abstractions.  I  should  try  to  inter- 


196          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

est  the  child  in  all  living  things,  including  other 
human  beings,  leading  him  to  see  their  lives 
as  they  live  them  and  enabling  him  to  under- 
stand them.  He  then  would  have  a  reason  for 
caring  for  them,  and  instruction  would  not  be 
mere  preaching  (pp.  32,  143). 

Of  course,  it  does  not  follow  that  an  under- 
standing of  the  habits  of  animals  and  plants 
always  insures  humane  feelings  towards  them, 
but  if  sympathy  and  spirit  are  a  part  of  the 
teaching,  it  must  inevitably  lead  in  that  direc- 
tion. All  first-hand  contact  with  the  verities 
of  nature  makes  for  ethical  development  of  the 
individual. 

Would  you  tell  the  child  the  names  of  the 
things? 

Certainly,  the  same  as  I  should  tell  him  the 
name  of  a  new  boy  or  girl.  But  I  should  not 
stop  with  the  name.  Nature-study  does  not 
ask  finally  "What  is  the  thing?"  but  "How  does 
the  thing  live?"  or  "What  does  it  do?"  or 
"How  did  it  get  here?"  or  "What  can  I  do 
with  it?"  The  name  is  only  a  part  of  the  Ian- 


Inquiries  and  Answers  197 

guage  that  enables  us  to  talk  about  the  object. 
Tell  the  name  at  the  outset  and  have  the  mat- 
ter done  with  (pp.  79,  121).  Then  go  on  to 
questions. 

Would  you  begin  by  first  reading  to  the  child 
about  nature? 

No,  not  in  the  school  as  a  part  of  nature- 
study  work.  The  reading  should  come  after, 
not  before  (pp.  30,  37).  Order  will  gradually 
come  out  of  experience.  The  child  should  first 
come  in  contact  with  things  rather  than  with 
ideas  about  things.  This  is  the  natural  order. 
Animals  come  before  zoology,  plants  before 
botany,  fields  and  rocks  before  geology,  words 
before  language,  religion  before  theology.  Ex- 
perience should  come  before  theory. 

There  will  be  times,  of  course,  in  the  exig- 
encies of  school  work,  when  the  teacher  may 
feel  obliged  to  read  to  the  children  in  advance 
of  taking  up  the  particular  study;  but  these 
occasions  will  be  exceptions,  and  not  a  part  of 
the  system.  In  many  cases,  a  vacant  period  or 
a  rainy  day  may  be  made  useful  by  good  nature 
reading. 


198  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Now  that  there  are  so  many  nature-books, 
how  shall  I  choose  the  most  useful  one? 

Only  by  finding  out  what  you  want.  The 
multitude  of  books  may  be  confusing,  but  the 
greater  the  number  the  greater  is  the  chance 
that  you  .will  find  one  to  your  liking.  Some 
persons  deplore  the  making  of  many  books, 
because  they  then  have  more  difficulty  in  choos- 
ing; but  the  time  has  already  passed  when  one 
book,  or  even  two,  can  satisfy  a  good  teacher. 
The  teacher  may  not  be  able  to  purchase  several 
books,  but  the  school  should  supply  a  reasonable 
number.  In  these  days  the  library  is  part  of 
the  equipment  of  the  school.  There  is  a  gen- 
eral feeling  that  a  new  book — particularly  a 
new  school-book — is  made  for  the  purpose  of 
displacing  some  other  book.  I  once  wrote  a 
book.  It  seemed  to  occupy  a  field  for  which 
one  of  my  best  friends  also  had  written.  This 
friend  wrote  that  perhaps  I  was  right  and  he 
was  wrong.  I  hope  I  was  right  but  this  does 
not  imply  that  he  was  wrong.  I  hope  that  we 
are  both  right.  There  is  more  than  one  point 
of  view. 


Inquiries  and  Answers  199 

It  is  not  essential  that  we  have  uniform 
methods  of  teaching  any  subject  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  and  there  is  reason  why  we  should 
not  have  them  in  nature-teaching.  When  one 
text-book  satisfies  everybody,  it  is  because  every- 
body is  uncritical  and  unpersonal. 


How  shall  I  acquire  sufficient  knowledge  to 
enable  me  to  teach  nature-study? 

In  the  same  way  that  you  acquire  other 
knowledge — by  means  of  work  and  study. 
There  is  no  way  by  which  you  can  dream  it  or 
absorb  it.  There  is  no  excellence  without  labor. 
The  teacher  should  know  more  than  he  attempts 
to  teach. 

Yet,  you  must  not  magnify  the  importance  of 
mere  information.  The  ambition  to  teach  and 
the  love  of  doing  for  a  child  are  the  funda- 
mental requisities.  Fill  yourself  full  of  some 
subject,  however  small  it  may  be.  When  you 
cannot  hold  it  longer,  teach.  Yes,  you  may 
make  mistakes.  But  every  one  makes  mistakes, 
even  with  the  best  of  pains.  Every  person  who, 
by  teaching  or  writing,  has  helped  the  world  to 


2OO          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

a  higher  plane,  has  said  or  written  errors. 
Every  person,  and  particularly  every  teacher, 
should  make  all  effort  to  be  accurate;  but  if  we 
wait  till  every  possibility  of  error  is  removed, 
the  world's  work  will  never  be  done.  Many  a 
man  sacrifices  his  chances  of  usefulness  for  fear 
of  making  a  mistake.  The  real  work  is  not  per- 
formed by  timid  persons  (p.  59). 

The  best  way  to  acquire  the  knowledge  is  to 
work  for  a  time  with  a  good  teacher,  who  has 
enthusiasm  and  human  sympathy.  Read  books 
and  leaflets.  Above  all,  go  into  the  field  and 
study  the  objects  themselves.  Do  not  wait  until 
you  are  thoroughly  equipped  before  you  begin 
to  teach,  else  you  will  never  begin.  When  you 
have  begun  and  your  pupils  begin  to  press  for 
answers,  you  will  learn.  When  you  discover 
that  you  have  made  an  error,  admit  it  and 
acknowledge  it.  The  pupil  will  respect  you. 
Honesty  always  wins  respect.  (Pp.  44,  172.) 

It  is  not  necessary  that  you  become  a  scientist 
in  order  to  teach  nature-study.  You  simply  go 
as  far  as  you  know,  and  then  say  to  the  pupil 
that  you  cannot  answer  the  questions  which  you 


Inquiries  and  Answers  201 

cannot.  This  at  once  elevates  you  in  the  pupil's 
estimation,  for  the  pupil  is  convinced  of  your 
truthfulness,  and  is  made  to  feel — but  how 
seldom  is  the  sensation! — that  knowledge  is 
not  the  peculiar  property  of  one  person,  but  is 
the  right  of  any  one  who  seeks  it.  It  ought  to 
set  the  pupil  inquiring  for  himself.  The 
teacher  never  needs  to  apologize  for  nature. 
He  is  teaching  only  because  he  is  an  older  and 
more  experienced  pupil  than  his  pupil  is. 
This  is  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  in  the  colleges 
and  universities  to-day.  The  best  teacher  is 
the  one  whose  pupils  the  furthest  outrun  him; 
his  pride  is  in  the  good  pupils  that  he  sends  out. 

Is  it  best  to  have  a  professional  nature-study 
teacher  to  go  from  school  to  school? 

This  is  a  local,  personal,  and  administrative 
problem.  Ideally,  it  is  best  that  every  teacher 
handle  the  nature-study,  because,  as  nature-study 
is  a  way  of  approach  and  a  means  of  teaching, 
its  effect  is  greatest  when  it  is  most  continuous. 
In  practice,  however,  some  teachers  will  be  sure 


2O2  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

to  develop  special  aptitudes  for  the  work,  and 
these  persons  should  be  retained  for  this  par- 
ticular effort.  The  best  talent  should  be  em- 
ployed for  nature-study,  as  for  anything  else. 

If  there  is  a  domestic  science  teacher  going 
from  school  to  school,  perhaps  she  could  also 
qualify  in  nature-study.  Much  of  what  we  call 
domestic  science  is,  or  should  be,  pure  nature- 
study;  and  all  home  questions  should  find  ex- 
pression in  the  schools. 

Should  not  nature-study  be  in  all  the  grades 
for  all  pupils,  and  technical  work  be  left  to  the 
high-school? 

[This  teacher  asks  the  following  questions: 
"Should  not  every  teacher  who  goes  out  to 
the  grades  be  prepared  for  giving  the  children 
instruction  concerning  the  life  about  them? 
Should  not  nature-study  be  planned  for  all  the 
grades  as  a  means  of  giving  the  child  his  bear- 
ings and  relations  to  animals  and  plants,  and 
should  not  formal  instruction  in  the  principles 
of  agriculture  come  in  the  high-school?  or,  in 
other  words,  should  not  the  child's  interest  in 


Inquiries  and  Answers  203 

things  out-of-doors  be  fostered  by  means  of 
informal  and  yet  careful  instruction  during  the 
earlier  school  years  without  special  reference  to 
the  utilitarian  phases  of  nature?"] 

Your  questions  are  easy  for  me  to  answer 
because  they  are  framed  in  such  a  way  that  I 
need  only  to  say  "yes"  to  every  one  of  them. 

Nature-study  teaching  is  not  specialized  teach- 
ing. It  is  a  fundamental  educational  process 
which  should  put  the  child  right  toward  the 
world  and  toward  life.  If  every  child  should 
have  a  close  connection  with  his  environment, 
so,  also,  should  every  grown-up;  and  it  follows 
that  if  the  grown-up  is  a  teacher,  he  will  carry 
this  spirit  into  the  schoolroom. 

The  child  who  has  the  proper  point  of  view 
toward  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  and  proper 
sympathy  toward  the  objects  and  affairs  about 
him,  will  be  better  prepared  for  any  kind  of 
study  that  comes  later,  whether  that  study  is 
Latin,  mathematics,  engineering,  agriculture,  or 
other  subject.  I  should  leave  the  technical 
agriculture  for  the  high-school,  and  preferably 
for  the  upper  grades  of  the  high-school.  It  is 


204  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

better  to  have  the  formal  agriculture  come  after 
the  student  has  had  chemistry,  physics  and 
biology,  at  least  to  some  extent.  This  would 
probably  put  the  formal  agriculture  in  the  third 
or  fourth  year  of  the  high-school.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  the  pupil  should  have  been 
prepared  for  all  this  work  by  having  his  mind 
open  to  the  nature  about  him.  In  rural  com- 
munities this  nature-teaching  will,  of  course, 
bring  the  child  into  touch  with  farms,  whereas 
in  cities  and  towns  the  farming  phase  of  it 
would  naturally  be  less  emphasized.  I  should 
not  try  to  force  any  child  to  become  a  farmer, 
or  to  follow  any  other  occupation.  When  he 
comes  to  the  realm  of  the  high-school,  he  may 
of  his  own  desire  wish  to  begin  to  specialize. 
I  should  hope  that  the  early  training  would 
be  such  that  more  persons  would  want  to 
specialize  in  agricultural  subjects  than  has  been 
the  case  in  the  past;  but  the  real  nature-study 
teaching  is  quite  independent  of  this. 

It    is    undoubtedly    a    mistake    to    introduce 
formal  and  technical  agricultural  work  into  the 


Inquiries  and  Answers  205 

grades.  It  is  easy  to  refer  the  pupil  in  the 
grammar  grades  to  bulletins  and  books,  when 
he  should  be  coming  into  original  contact  with 
the  life  and  materials  about  him.  The  pupil 
should  be  taught  to  know  domestic  animals 
before  he  is  instructed  in  the  breeds  of  animals. 
He  should  know  the  way  in  which  the  neighbors 
build  their  houses  and  barns  before  he  studies 
the  styles  of  architecture.  The  grade  work 
should  touch  many  things,  first  and  last,  so  that 
the  pupil  gains  some  conception  of  his  world  at 
large  and,  as  you  say,  gets  "his  bearings  and 
relations." 

Should  the  parts  of  a  school-garden  be  appor- 
tioned to  pupils,  or  should  the  work  be  done  in 
common? 

In  practice  this  becomes  largely  a  question 
of  administration:  sometimes  one  thing  may 
be  done  and  sometimes  the  other.  Ideally,  the 
parts  should  be  apportioned  to  pupils  in 
the  real  laboratory  school-garden.  Thereby  is 
the  sense  of  proprietorship  cultivated  and  the 


206  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

stimulus  of  emulation  aroused.  It  is  always 
advisable,  when  it  can  be  arranged,  to  provide 
for  some  culmination  or  focus  of  the  season's 
work  in  the  nature  of  a  flower-show  or  vege- 
table-show; or,  the  children  may  be  allowed  to 
sell  the  products  of  their  gardens  or  to  give 
them  to  hospitals  or  other  worthy  objects. 
This  individuality  of  interest  can  be  easily  main- 
tained in  the  plot-garden,  but  it  is  more  difficult 
in  the  ornamental  garden  in  which  the  plants 
are  grown  in  continuous  borders.  (See  p.  87.) 

In  order  to  indicate  how  some  of  the  ques- 
tions are  attacked  by  those  who  are  engaged  in 
the  work,  I  reprint  an  article  on  the  Whittier 
School-Garden,  by  Miss  Jean  E.  Davis,  that 
appeared  in  Country  Life  in  America: 

"What  is  believed  to  be  the  largest  school- 
garden  in  the  United  States  is  to  be  found  in 
Virginia  at  the  Hampton  Institute  for  JNegro 
and  Indian  youth,  where  it  forms  part  of  the 
equipment  of  the  Whittier  Training  School — 
the  practice-school  of  the  institution.  Two 
acres  of  ground  are  given  up  to  the  garden,  the 


Inquiries  and  Answers  207 

larger  part  being  divided  into  two  hundred 
individual  plots,  varying  in  size  from  four  by 
six  feet  for  the  pickaninnies  of  the  kindergarten, 
to  eleven  by  fifteen  feet  for  the  oldest  boys 
and  girls.  Each  plot  is  owned,  for  the  time 
being,  by  two  children,  who  enter  into  partner- 
ship and  share  equally  in  the  work  as  well  as  in 
the  profits  of  the  garden — spading,  raking, 
planting,  hoeing,  harvesting  with  their  own 
hands,  and  using  the  products  in  their  own 
homes  or  selling  them  to  their  neighbors.  The 
young  farmers  are  not  given  carte  blanche, 
however,  in  regard  to  the  kind  of  crops  they 
shall  raise  or  the  position  of  them  in  the  beds. 
The  supervision  of  the  work  is  in  the  hands  of 
one  person — the  director  of  the  agricultural 
department  of  the  Institute — who  decides  what 
vegetables  and  flowers  shall  be  planted  and  how 
they  shall  be  arranged.  This  plan  serves  to 
give  symmetry  and  order  to  the  garden  as  a 
whole,  and  adds  materially  to  the  educative 
value  of  the  work.  Most  of  the  plants  selected 
are  such  as  are  easily  cultivated  and  such  as 


208          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

mature  rapidly,  like  lettuce,  radishes,  nastur- 
tiums and  marigolds;  though  peas,  beans,  cab- 
bage, spinach  and  tomatoes  are  also  cultivated. 
The  gardens  are  made  and  planted  both  in  the 
fall  and  in  the  spring,  the  crops  sown  in  the 
spring  being  cared  for  during  the  long  summer 
vacation  by  volunteers. 

"The  beds  are  separated  from  each  other  by 
paths  one  foot  wide,  and  are  arranged  for  the 
different  classes  in  sections,  having  two-foot 
paths  between  them.  Extra  plots,  six  feet 
wide,  extending  the  full  length  of  each  section, 
are  used  for  overflow  work  by  pupils  who 
are  exceptionally  quick  and  energetic.  Straw- 
berries and  raspberries  are  sometimes  permitted 
in  these  beds.  Another  opportunity  for  work 
out  of  the  usual  routine  is  afforded  by  a  space 
of  three  quarters  of  an  acre  which  is  reserved 
at  the  rear  of  the  garden  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  the  larger  boys  how  to  use  a  horse 
and  plow.  In  order  that  the  esthetic  side  of 
gardening  may  not  be  neglected — the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  sense  of  beauty  being  esteemed  of 


Inquiries  and  Answers  209 

equal  importance  with  practical  instruction  in 
agriculture — a  large  lawn  has  been  placed  at 
the  entrance,  while  border  beds  of  ornamental 
flowers  form  the  other  boundaries. 

"But  if  school-gardening  were  confined  to  the 
making  of  gardens,  the  planting  of  seeds  and 
the  cultivation  of  crops,  beneficial  as  these 
experiences  might  be,  it  would  still  fall  far 
short  of  accomplishing  the  end  desired  in 
introducing  this  subject  into  school  courses.  It 
would  soon  degenerate  into  either  play  or 
drudgery.  To  give  it  dignity  and  interest,  and 
to  make  it  of  practical  value  in  later  life,  the 
gardening  is  supplemented  or  preceded  by 
simple  experiments  in  the  classroom  illustrating 
the  principles  of  germination  and  plant-growth; 
and  a  study  is  made  of  seed  dispersion,  the 
comparative  value  of  soils  and  the  work  of 
beneficial  and  injurious  insects.  Seeds  are 
planted  in  window-boxes,  the  seedlings  afford- 
ing material  for  language  and  drawing  lessons 
before  being  transplanted  into  the  outdoor 
beds  The  decorative  value  of  flowers,  leaves 
and  berries  is  considered,  and  the  children  are 
14 


2io          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

encouraged  to  make  gardens  at  their  homes 
from  which  they  may  gather  bouquets  of 
flowers  for  their  dinner-tables. 

"The  results  of  two  years'  experience  in  teach- 
ing gardening  and  nature-study  at  the  Whittier 
School  are  most  gratifying.  While  at  first  it 
was  necessary  to  use  compulsion  with  some  of 
the  older  girls,  and  the  little  ones  merely  con- 
sidered anything  'good  fun'  that  took  them  out 
of  doors,  they  now  without  exception  look  for- 
ward with  eager  enthusiasm  to  'gardening  day,' 
which  comes  twice  a  week  to  each  of  the  four 
hundred.  Large  crops  have  been  gathered  and 
proudly  carried  home;  seeds  have  been  in 
demand  for  home  gardens,  sixty  or  more  of 
which  have  been  made  in  the  neighborhood; 
and  last  spring  children  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  volunteered  to  cultivate  the 
gardens  during  the  summer  vacation.  In  the 
home-gardens  there  has  been  great  diversity  of 
crops.  Besides  the  usual  school  plants,  chil- 
dren have  raised  wheat,  corn,  pumpkins,  sweet 
and  Irish  potatoes,  and  also  many  kinds  of 
flowers.  A  wholesome  rivalry  has  sprung  up 


Inquiries  and  Answers  21 1 

between  the  owners  of  adjoining  beds  in  the 
school-garden,  and  pride  in  the  appearance  of 
the  school-grounds  has  been  stimulated.  An 
interest  in  birds  and  insects,  and  an  appreciation 
of  the  beauty  of  wayside  flowers  and  other 
common  things,  have  been  developed;  and  the 
roughest  children  have  been  made  more  gentle 
by  handling  the  beautiful  flowers  that  they  have 
grown,  the  result  of  their  own  care  and  pa- 
tience. A  regard  for  the  property  and  rights 
of  others  is  among  the  results  of  this  coopera- 
tive gardening,  also  an  appreciation  of  the 
advantages  of  working  together,  and  a  certain 
forbearance  and  loyalty  to  one's  partner,  all  of 
which  are  lessons  of  inestimable  value,  espe- 
cially to  colored  children.  When  we  add  to 
these  unconscious  influences  of  school-gardening 
the  conscious  self-respect  and  self-reliance  that 
come  from  the  ability  to  produce  from  the  soil 
something  of  one's  very  own,  it  will  be  admitted 
that  this  subject  is  worthy  of  an  honorable 
place  in  the  course  of  study  of  our  common 
schools,  of  which  the  Whittier  School  is  only 
a  type." 


212  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Can  I  make  a  nature-study  exhibition  useful 
as  a  part  of  an  exposition? 

I  hope  to  see  good  nature-study  exhibitions 
at  all  the  great  expositions.  It  is  time  that  we 
begin  to  relate  education  directly  to  the  affairs 
of  life;  or,  to  put  the  matter  in  another  way, 
to  make  the  affairs  of  life  a  means  of  education. 
I  hope  that  you  will  find  some  way  of  making 
your  educational  exhibition  dynamic.  Most 
exhibitions  are  merely  passive  or  static,  con- 
sisting of  pictures  and  charts,  books,  apparatus, 
and  such  other  things  as  sit  still.  The  very 
essence  and  spirit  of  the  new  education  is 
activity.  I  judge  from  your  letter  that  you 
are  expecting  to  express  this  activity  by  means 
of  a  school  in  actual  operation.  I  hope  that 
you  may  also  have  a  good  school-garden  in 
actual  operation,  and  also  some  effective  out- 
door laboratory  work.  I  am  not  yet  satisfied 
with  the  school-garden  movement.  I  think  that 
we  have  not  yet  developed  its  laboratory 
significance. 

The  time  is  coming  when  we  shall  begin  our 
educational  process  by  putting  the  child  into 


Inquiries  and  Answers  213 

real  activities  of  work  and  play,  and  when  we 
shall  add  the  books  and  apparatus  gradually  as 
he  grows  and  the  need  of  them  develops.  Your 
exhibition  should  teach  this. 

Should  Ms  nature-study  be  confined  to  the 
schools? 

It  should  not  be  confined  to  schools.  Too 
often  it  is  thus  restricted  because  we  are  in  the 
habit  of  delegating  the  training  of  our  children 
to  a  professional  class  of  teachers.  Ideally, 
the  home  should  be  the  most  perfect  school, 
and  the  parents  should  be  the  best  teachers. 
In  the  increasing  complications  of  our  lives, 
however,  the  division  of  labor  forces  the  chil- 
dren more  and  more  from  the  home-training 
into  the  school-training;  therefore  it  is  increas- 
ingly important  that  we  give  good  heed  to 
the  maintenance  of  schools.  But  even  so,  the 
home-training  should  afford  an  auxiliary  to  the 
school-training.  There  should  be  more  than 
one  common  bond  of  method  and  purpose. 
One  of  these  bonds  should  certainly  be  the 


214  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

desire  to  put  the  child  into  sympathetic  relation 
with  its  own  necessities. 

I  fully  commend  education  by  means  of 
literature  and  history  and  science  and  art,  of 
course;  but  if  I  were  confined  to  one  means  I 
should  choose  that  which  would  lead  me  to 
love  the  things  that  I  see  and  the  work  that  I 
do  day  by  day.  This  outlook  I  should  want 
to  impress  on  my  children;  but  I  could  not 
impress  it  by  any  mere  intellectual  means.  It 
is  an  affair  of  the  heart;  and  if  I  do  not  live  it 
I  cannot  teach  it. 

But  it  does  not  follow  because  one  or  even 
both  of  the  parents  is  in  full  rhythm  with 
the  natural  world,  that  the  parents  can  teach 
the  child  effectively.  Few  persons  are  good 
teachers;  and  when  there  is  marked  difference 
of  outlook  between  the  parents,  the  school  may 
be  the  only  agency  that  can  give  the  child  an 
harmonious  relation. 

The  school  is  a  distributing  agency  for  all 
kinds  of  educational  ideas.  It  must  more  con- 
sciously recognize  this  function  and  take  pains 
to  aid  parents,  pastors,  and  others  to  encourage 


Inquiries  and  Answers  215 

work  outside  the  school,  particularly  such 
work  as  contributes  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
community.  The  high-school  bears  a  marked 
responsibility  in  this  way,  because  it  has  greater 
equipment  than  the  grade-school  and  deals  in 
more  particularized  subjects.  The  influence 
of  the  high-school  should  be  felt  not  only  in 
the  school  grades,  but  in  the  whole  daily  life 
of  the  people.  It  should  set  good  ideals  of 
public  service  by  enabling  the  people  to  meet 
their  problems. 

What  shall  we  do  with  the  children  in  the 
summer  vacation? 

This  is  an  exceedingly  important  question 
and  very  difficult  to  answer.  The  teacher  has 
no  control  of  the  child  during  this  period.  He 
can  suggest  what  the  pupil  may  do,  but  the 
probability  is  that  the  pupil  will  merely  drift. 

I  am  convinced  that  there  is  a  great  loss  of 
efficiency  in  the  over-long  and  undirected  sum- 
mer vacation  for  both  child  and  youth.  The 
colleges  are  beginning  to  feel  this,  as  shown  in 
the  development  of  four-term  systems.  The 


216  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

summer  schools  are  protests  against  an  idle 
summer.  Herein  is  where  the  farm  boy  ac- 
quires much  of  his  efficiency  for  the  battle  of 
life — in  the  fact  that  he  has  no  long  periods  of 
enforced  idleness,  laziness  and  emptiness.  He 
is  kept  at  work.  He  grows  up  with  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  time.  He  knows  what 
industry  is  and  what  it  brings.  Steady  effort 
and  application  become  the  warp  and  woof  of 
his  life.  The  town  boy  of  the  upper  and  middle 
class,  on  the  other  hand,  is  likely  to  become  ac- 
complished in  feats  of  idleness.  One  fourth  his 
time  is  mere  vacation,  or,  rather,  mere  vacancy. 
He  is  handicapped  when  later  he  comes  squarely 
against  the  realities  of  life. 

I  believe  in  a  long  vacation  if  the  time  is 
occupied  in  some  well-directed  effort.  I  am 
glad  to  see  the  development  of  the  summer-camp 
idea  for  both  boys  and  girls,  where,  under  com- 
petent and  sympathetic  guidance,  with  firm  but 
kindly  discipline  and  something  like  Spartan 
fare,  they  are  led  to  see  and  to  know  the 
nature  in  which  they  are.  In  such  camping- 
out  experiences  the  youth  comes  hard  against 


Inquiries  and  Answers  217 

actualities.  He  gathers  materials  that  are  his 
own  and  that  become  a  part  of  his  capital 
throughout  life.  He  comes  to  his  own  con- 
clusions and  to  think  for  himself,  not  merely 
to  absorb  his  knowledge  and  opinions  from 
teachers  and  books.  In  later  life  he  may  never 
have  another  opportunity  to  secure  this  actual 
experience. 

I  wonder  how  many  persons  ever  saw  the  sun 
rise  ? 

Will  not  this  nature-study  work  interfere  with 
school  discipline? 

That  all  depends  on  what  you  mean  by  "dis- 
cipline." If  you  mean  perfect  "order,"  the  child 
sitting  erect  with  clasped  hands,  then  nature- 
study  work  may  annoy  you.  If  you  mean 
only  that  the  child  is  well-behaved,  obedient 
and  happy,  then  no  ill  result  should  come  from 
the  nature-study  effort.  Nature-study  should 
supply  some  of  the  "busy  work"  between  the 
regular  periods.  The  best  means  to  secure  good 
discipline  is  to  keep  the  child  busy  and  inter- 
ested. "Discipline"  is  then  a  result. 


2i8  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

The  greater  number  of  mischievous  and  re- 
fractory children  can  be  interested  in  some 
piece  of  personal  work  or  investigation.  The 
boy  who  is  "licked"  at  home  and  punished  at 
school  is  likely  to  spend  his  time  midway  be- 
tween the  two ;  and  yet  he  may  be  easy  to  reach 
if  only  he  is  understood. 

Shall  I  correlate  the  nature-study  work  with 
other  work? 

This  question  can  be  answered  only  for  par- 
ticular cases.  In  general,  correlation  is  an  ad- 
vantage to  all  subjects  concerned;  however,  I 
fear  that  in  much  of  the  correlation  the  nature- 
study  part  is  little  more  than  a  name.  If  the 
nature-study  can  be  kept  genuine — a  real  study 
of  native  objects  and  relations  at  first  hand — I 
see  no  danger  In  correlation.  The  correlation 
usually  is  of  greater  benefit  to  the  other  subjects 
than  to  nature-study. 

Nature-study  work  can  be  correlated  with 
various  other  school  work,  notably  with  essay 
writing,  drawing  and  geography  teaching. 
The  very  first  essential  in  essay  writing  is  to 


Inquiries  and  Answers  219 

have  something  from  one's  own  experience  to 
say.  Assigned  topics  are  usually  "hard"  at 
best.  Let  the  child  write  of  what  it  has  seen 
or  done  that  day  or  yesterday — the  butterfly, 
the  tadpoles  in  the  pond  near  by,  the  plants 
growing  in  its  garden,  the  fish  in  the  aquarium, 
the  peaches  on  the  tree  by  the  barn,  the  little 
world  of  life  in  the  terrarium,  the  woodchuck 
that  lives  under  the  stone  fence,  the  things  it 
saw  in  the  market,  the  vehicles  it  sees  on  the 
street,  the  factories  and  farms  near  by,  the  field 
work,  the  house  work,  the  school,  the  highway, 
the  hill,  the  kinds  of  fences  by  the  way,  the 
collecting  expeditions  and  the  games.  If  the 
child  has  had  no  such  experience,  why  not  be- 
gin by  assigning  him  a  living  topic  to  look  up 
and  report  on  in  writing? 

We  need  to  be  unusually  careful  to  see  that 
the  writing  is  not  exotic  to  the  child.  Avoid 
the  model  of  nature-study  "stories"  and  "write- 
ups"  about  things;  these  stories  tell  what  others 
have  found  out.  They  may  inform  and  in- 
struct and  entertain,  rather  than  educate  and 
set  the  child  to  work. 


220  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

We  stifle  the  desire  to  write  if  we  first  lay 
down  rules  and  formulas  as  to  how  to  write. 
Let  the  child  have  a  personal  experience;  then 
allow  it  to  write.  Did  you  ever  have  a  pupil 
who  could  not  write  a  composition,  but  who 
could  write  a  letter  that  was  full  of  originality 
and  personality?  Why  could  it  write  the  one 
and  not  the  other?  Too  often,  I  fear,  we  pre- 
vent our  children  from  writing  by  trying  to 
make  them  write.  Of  what  use  is  writing, 
anyway,  if  it  is  not  self-expressive?  So,  let  the 
child  have  something  real  and  personal  to  write 
about.  No  subject  is  too  mean.  Then  when 
the  child  has  written,  throw  away  the  blue 
pencil  and  suggest  tactfully  how  the  piece  may 
be  improved  here  and  there.  Do  not  hinder 
the  child. 

I  well  remember  my  first  "composition." 
For  days  I  had  tried  to  think  of  a  "sub- 
ject." I  had  importuned  father  and  mother 
and  friends.  "Winter,"  "Spring,"  "The  pen 
is  mightier  than  the  sword,"  "The  pleasures 
of  farm  life,"  "Shakespeare" — all  had  equal 
terrors.  Rapidly  the  days  passed  away,  and 


Inquiries  and  Answers  221 

to-morrow  the  composition  must  be  ready,  and 
yet  of  all  the  well-sounding  subjects  not  one 
seemed  to  present  a  way  of  escape.  The 
teacher — God  bless  her ! — learned  of  my  plight. 
She  asked  me  what  was  the  best  "time"  I  had 
had  last  summer.  Of  course  I  knew — the  time 
when  we  all  went  blackberrying,  with  all  of  us 
rolled  into  the  bottom  of  the  wagon-box  that 
went  bumping  and  rattling  over  the  stones  and 
grinding  through  the  sand,  when  we  crept 
through  the  deep  cool  woods  and  then  came 
into  the  "clearing"  where  the  skidded  logs  were 
covered  with  the  tangle  of  berries  and  berries 
— of  course  I  knew!  With  what  wild  delight 
I  told  her!  and  then  she  said,  "Just  write  that 
down  and  it  will  be  your  composition."  From 
that  day  until  this  I  hope  I  have  written  only 
on  those  things  that  are  dear  to  me. 

I  have  a  similar  word  to  say  about  drawing. 
The  other  day  I  heard  Mrs.  Comstock  speak 
on  this  subject  before  a  convention  of  teachers. 
She  is  herself  an  artist.  She  said  that  there  are 
two  kinds  of  drawing — the  kind  that  is  the 
child's  self-expression,  and  the  kind  that  makes 


222  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

an  artistic  picture.  It  is  natural  for  every  child 
to  make  lines  and  marks  to  express  what  it  sees 
or  experiences;  but  when  these  lines  and  marks 
do  not  conform  to  the  ideals  of  grown-ups,  we 
discourage  the  effort  and  the  child  ceases  to 
draw.  Considered  as  the  effort  of  the  child  to 
express  itself,  no  drawing  can  be  "poor." 
Mrs.  Comstock  put  on  the  board  a  copy  of  a 
drawing  from  a  child's  pad,  and  it  was  as 
follows : 


Ho*w  a  man  impressed  a  child. — face,  arms,  Itgs 

We  all  laughed;  but  we  were  told  that  this 
was  no  caricature,  but  the  impression  that  a 
man  made  on  the  child — face,  arms,  legs. 

More  than  words,  the  drawing  may  show 
what  the  world  means  to  the  child,  even  allow- 


Inquiries  and  Answers  223 

ing  for  all  the  errors  in  clumsiness  with  pencil. 
Do  you  not  wonder  how  the  world  looks  to  the 
little  girl  in  the  second  grade  who  made  all 
these  drawings  and  sent  them  to  Uncle  John? 
Would  you  not  like  to  take  her  on  your  knee 
and  have  her  explain  them  to  you  ? 


*k*t  a  little  girl 


224  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

Primarily,  drawing  is  a  means  of  expressing 
what  we  see  and  feel;  now  and  then  a  person 
develops  the  ability  to  make  a  picture  that 
pleases  others,  and  he  becomes  an  artist. 
Primarily,  our  interest  in  the  external  world  is 
one  of  sympathy  and  personality;  now  and  then 
a  person  develops  the  ability  to  make  discov- 
eries and  to  record  them,  and  he  becomes  a 
scientist. 

Correlation  of  nature-study  and  drawing 
should  give  excellent  results  to  both  subjects. 
The  nature-study  should  afford  objects  in  which 
the  pupil  is  genuinely  interested;  the  drawing 
should  aid  in  focusing  the  observation  and 
making  it  accurate.  Drawing  should  be  en- 
couraged primarily  for  the  purpose  of  discover- 
ing what  the  child  really  sees.  As  the  child 
sees  more,  and  with  greater  accuracy,  the  draw- 
ings improve.  So  the  drawings  become  an 
approximate  measure  of  the  progress  of  the 
pupil.  Do  not  measure  the  drawings  merely 
as  drawings,  or  from  the  artist's  point  of  view. 
We  are  likely  to  dwell  so  much  on  the  mere 


Inquiries  and  Answers  225 

product  of  the  child's  work  that  we  forget  the 
child. 

Too  early  in  the  school  life  do  we  begin  to 
make  pupils  mere  artists  and  literators.  First 
the  child  should  be  encouraged  to  express  him- 
self; then  he  may  be  taught  to  draw  and  to 
compose. 

If  correlation  produces  these  useful  results,  it 
should  be  encouraged. 

What  can  I  do  to  put  our  rural  schools  in 
touch  with  their  constituency? 

What  you  can  do,  as  a  superintendent,  to  aid 
your  rural  schools  to  better  their  conditions,  is 
to  enter  into  a  general  agitation  of  the  subject 
through  the  local  papers,  through  correspond- 
ence with  the  teachers  themselves  and  the  school 
officers,  with  the  granges,  and  other  farmers' 
societies,  village  improvement  societies,  pastors, 
and  whoever  and  whatever  else  there  may  be 
that  stands  for  bettering  conditions. 

Work  of  this  kind  cannot  be  accomplished  in 
any  one  way  or  through  any  one  source.  With 
a  determination  to  alleviate  the  situation,  with 
is 


226  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

imagination  and  with  industry  a  person  can 
accomplish  a  good  deal  in  the  directions  about 
which  you  inquire. 

Following  are  definite  suggestions  to  make 
to  rural  teachers  for  working  out  in  the  school- 
house  (adapted  from  M.  P.  Jones,  Cornell 
Rural  School  Leaflet)  : 

1.  Register  with  the  college  of  agriculture 
or  experiment  station  of  your  state,  to  receive 
the  publications  and  to  be  on  the  correspondence 
lists. 

2.  Write  to  the  state  education  department 
for  whatever  syllabi  it  may  publish  on  nature- 
study,  agriculture,  and  similar  subjects. 

3.  Start    an    agricultural    and    nature-study 
library.     A  very  creditable  beginning  may  be 
made  at  no  cost  except  postage,  by  asking  for 
publications  issued  by  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture at  Washington  and  the  State  Agricultural 
College  and  Experiment  Station.     It  is  recom- 
mended 

(a)  That  you  write  to  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.,  asking  to 
have  the  school  placed  on  the  mailing  list 


Inquiries  and  Answers  227 

for  the  monthly  list  of  publications  and  to 
have  the  following  sent  to  you: 

i  set  of  Farmers*  Bulletins  suitable  to 
the  locality. 

I  copy  of  the  list  of  Publications  for 
Free  Distribution. 

I  copy  of  the  list  of  Publications  for 
Sale. 

I  copy  each  of  reprints  of  areas  that 
have  been  surveyed  by  the  Bureau  of  Soils 
in  your  state. 

I  copy  each  of  Bulletins  186  and  160 
and  Circulars  77  and  52  of  the  Office  of 
Experiment  Stations.  On  receipt  of  these 
bulletins,  holes  should  be  punched  through 
them  and  strings  used  to  tie  them  together. 
Manila  paper  may  be  used  for  covers. 

(b)  That   you    write    to    the    Geological 
Survey,    Washington,    D.    C,    inclosing    15 
cents   in   stamps   and   asking   for   the   three 
geological    survey    maps    that    cover    your 
region. 

(c)  That  you  write  to  your  representative, 


228  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

congressman  or  senator,  for  copies  of  state 
or  national  documents  that  are  distributed  by 
them. 

(d)  That  you  secure  the  use  of  a  travel- 
ing library,   if  such  libraries   are  issued  by 
the  education  department  or  other  agency  in 
your  state. 

(e)  That  as  many  agricultural  and  nature- 
study  books  be  added  to  the  library  as  money 
will  permit. 

4.  Beautify  the  school-grounds.  Endeavor 
to  interest  the  trustees  and  the  farmers  of  the 
district.  In  one  district,  an  oyster  supper 
brought  forth  money  and  enthusiasm  enough  to 
produce  a  marked  improvement.  Valuable 
suggestions  will  be  found  in 

Farmer's  Bulletin  (U.  S.  Dept.  Agricul- 
ture) No.  43,  "Tree  Planting  on  Rural 
School  Grounds." 

Farmer's  Bulletin  No.  185,  "Beautifying 
the  Home." 

Farmer's  Bulletin  No.  248,  uThe  Lawn." 
Farmer's  Bulletin  No.  218,  "The  School- 
Garden." 


Inquiries  and  Answers  229 

Perhaps  the  agricultural  college  of  your  state, 
or  your  state  education  department,  has  issued 
publications  on  this  subject. 

5.  Begin    a    school- gar  den.     Every    country 
school  should  have  its  garden.     If  possible,  it 
should  be  large  enough  so  that  every  child  may 
have    a    garden    of    its    own.     The    children 
should  also  be  encouraged  to  have  gardens  at 
home.     The  school-garden  may  be  used  as  an 
experiment  station  to  test  fertilizers,  varieties, 
methods  of  planting,  and  the  like.     Read  books 
and  bulletins  on  the  subject. 

It  will  be  found  less  expensive  to  buy  seeds 
in  bulk  and  divide  these  into  penny  packets  to 
be  sold  or  given  to  the  children,  preferably  sold. 

6.  Make    a    window-box    and    have    plants 
growing  in  it. 

7.  Have  a  terrarium.     This  is  a  box  with 
sides  and  top  made  of  window  screens.     The 
top  is  hinged  so  that  it  can  be  raised.     Earth 
may  be  put  in  the  bottom  and  plants  allowed 
to  grow  in  it.     Frogs,  toads,  insects  and  other 
outdoor  life  can  thus  be  safely  housed.     The 


230  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

terrarium  may  be  used  in  winter  in  the  study  of 
fowls. 

8.  Have  an  aquarium.     A  glass  vessel  or  a 
Mason  fruit-jar,  with  water  frequently  renewed, 
will  serve  for  a  time.    Have  some  water-plants 
growing  in  the  aquarium  and  keep  a  few  fishes, 
salamanders  and  tadpoles  for  study. 

9.  Have  a  museum  of  things  related  to  the 
life  and  affairs  of  the  region.     Let  the  collec- 
tion be  started  and  increased  by  the  children 
themselves.     It  is  suggested  that  collections  be 
made  of  the  following: 

(a)  The  different  types  of  soil  found  in 
the  neighborhood:  sand,  silt,  clay,  muck,  and 
sandy,  silty  and  clay  loams. 

(b)  Seeds  of  common  vegetables,  flowers, 
fruits,  and  trees. 

(c)  Common    grasses:    timothy,    red-top, 
meadow  fescue,  Kentucky  blue-grass  orchard- 
grass. 

(d)  Common  legumes  of  the   farm  and 
garden :  red,  white,  and  alsike  clovers,  alfalfa, 
peas,  beans,  vetch,  soy  beans,  cowpeas. 


Inquiries  and  Answers  231 

(e)  Comon  cereals:  corn,  wheat,  oats,  rye, 
barley,  buckwheat,  rice. 

(/)  Ears  of  corn:  flint,  dent,  pop,  sweet. 
Secure  ears  showing  the  qualities  that  good 
ears  should  have.  A  lesson  in  corn-judging 
may  profitably  be  given. 

(g)  Fertilizers:  nitrate  of  soda,  dried 
blood,  ground  bone,  acid  phosphate,  muriate 
of  potash,  and  as  many  others  as  are  used  in 
the  neighborhood. 

(h)  Feeds  for  farm  animals:  bran,  mid- 
dlings, gluten  feed,  buckwheat  middlings, 
and  others  in  use.  The  local  feed  merchant 
and  seedman  might  lend  their  aid  in  supply- 
ing samples  of  these  feeds,  samples  of  ferti- 
lizers and  seeds. 

(i)  Fruit.  In  the  fall,  different  varieties 
of  apples,  pears,  plums,  and  grapes  could  be 
collected,  probably  with  much  enthusiasm,  by 
the  children.  Part  of  an  afternoon  could 
be  given  for  a  short  talk  on  fruit-growing 
by  a  local  fruit-grower,  after  which  the  sam- 
ples of  fruit  could  be  eaten.  Similar  col- 


232  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

lections  of  root-crops  and  vegetables  might 
be  made,  not  with  the  idea  of  keeping  them 
in  the  school  for  a  long  time,  but  as  one  of 
the  best  means  of  teaching  children  to  become 
familiar  with  the  common  things  of  their 
farms. 

(;)  Flowers  and  weeds.  These  can  be 
pressed  and  used  as  the  basis  for  the  school 
collection.  Begin  with  the  most  common 
plants  and  enlarge  the  collection  slowly. 

(k)  Leaves  of  trees.  Press  the  leaves 
of  some  of  the  most  common  trees,  adding 
to  the  collection  slowly  enough  for  the  chil- 
dren to  learn  as  they  go. 

(/)    Fibers:    wools    of    different    kinds, 
cotton,  flax,  hemp;  ropes,  twine  (particularly 
binder  twine),  bagging,  fabrics,  etc. 
10.  Teach    the    Bab  cock    milk    test.     Some 
schools  have  demonstrated  the  use  of  this  test 
before   grange   meetings.     Complete   milk-test- 
ing  outfits    suited    for   school   use    are   manu- 
factured at  small  price.     Write  to  dairy  supply 
house  for  catalogues,  and  get  information  from 
your  college  of  agriculture. 


Inquiries  and  Answers  233 

1 1 .  Have    a   reading-table.      Secure    a    few 
good  magazines,  agricultural  and  other  kinds. 
No  poor  books  or  poor  magazines  should  be  in 
the  schoolroom  or  home.     Some  publishers  of 
agricultural  magazines  will  send  complimentary 
copies  if,  in  asking  for  them,  it  is  stated  that 
they  are  wanted  for  the  school  library. 

12.  Have  a  work-bench  with  tools,  if  pos- 
sible.   The  boys  and  girls  should  become  famil- 
iar with  the  handling  of  common  carpenters' 
tools.     Simple  things,  especially  those  that  can 
be  used  on  the  farm  or  at  play,  may  be  made, 
such  as  a  window-box,  terrarium,  stakes  for  the 
school-garden,   bird-houses,   kites,    sleds,    skees, 
book-shelves,  tables,  flower-stands.     Hand  tools 
can  be  repaired.     This  will  provide   excellent 
manual-training,   developing  naturally  into  use 
of  wheels  and  more  complex  forms. 

13.  Have  one  or  two  vases  with  flowers  well 
arranged. 

14.  Have  a  school  fair.     These  have  been 
found   very  successful   where  tried.     Children 
exhibit  products  from  their  own  gardens  and 
benches.    The  girls  exhibit  cakes,  pies,  biscuits. 


234          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

which  they  have  made.  Small  prizes  are  given. 
The  people  of  the  district  are  invited  and  the 
fair  is  made  one  of  the  important  social  events 
of  the  year.  It  will  probably  be  found  that 
the  older  people  enter  enthusiastically  into  a 
competition  of  their  own,  and  if  this  can  be 
arranged  it  will  add  greatly  to  the  success  of 
the  fair.  Take  the  exhibit  to  the  county  fair 
or  state  fair. 

15.  Take    occasional    trips    to    neighboring 
farms,  factories,  to  the  woods  and  fields. 

1 6.  Provide  some  simple  apparatus,  as,  for 
example,  the  following  to  begin  with: 

I   Babcock  milk  test    (if  in  a  dairy 

country)    $5«oo 

I   tripod   lens   magnifying   glass 75 

I  terrarium   1.25 

I   aquarium    2.00 

I   insect  net  (home  made) 

Various  cups  and  boxes  to  hold  specimens. 

17.  Try  to  know  the  weather.     If  you  have 
expeditious  mail  service,   apply  to  the  United 
States  Weather  Bureau  for  the  daily  bulletins 


Inquiries  and  Answers  235 

and  a  frame  to  put  them  in.  A  good  ther- 
mometer should  be  hung  in  a  protected  shady 
place.  Thermometers  that  are  reliable  at  high 
and  low  temperatures  usually  cost  more  than 
one  dollar.  A  rain-gauge  will  be  useful  and 
interesting.  Some  schools  may  add  a  barometer, 
if  the  teacher  understands  it;  but  the  cheap 
instruments  are  not  reliable, 

How  can  I  reach  the  farmers  of  my  neigh- 
borhood? 

[A  teacher  is  discouraged  because  she  seems 
to  make  no  headway;  and  the  farmers  com- 
plain that  her  work  is  not  practical  and  they 
want  to  know  how  to  make  more  money.] 

While  you  are  under  obligation  to  teach 
farmers'  children,  you  do  not  bear  the  responsi- 
bility of  making  the  farms  profitable.  It  is  the 
business  of  the  farmer  himself  to  make  his 
farming  pay.  You  are  engaged  in  the  work  of 
education. 

How  to  teach,  not  how  to  farm,  is  there- 
fore your  problem.  I  take  it  to  be  axiomatic 


236  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

that  every  person's  mind  should  be  expanded 
in  order  that  he  may  derive  the  greatest  satis- 
faction from  life.  If  the  occupation  in  which 
he  is  engaged  will  not  allow  him  to  derive 
this  satisfaction,  then  it  is  his  privilege,  and 
in  fact  his  duty,  to  change  his  occupation.  I 
am  very  sure  that  the  educating  of  farmer 
boys  and  girls  will  often  have  the  effect  of 
taking  them  away  from  the  old  farm.  It  is 
a  question,  then,  whether  the  whole  point  of 
view  on  farming  must  not  change  and  whether 
such  new  methods  and  new  types  of  life  must 
be  developed  as  to  interest  persons  with  a  broad 
outlook  on  life.  I  think  that  the  diffusion  of 
information  and  the  extension  of  education  is 
bound  to  have  this  effect  on  the  farming  indus- 
try in  the  long  run.  In  the  meantime,  it  is  for 
us  to  try  to  determine  just  what  is  the  most 
practicable  means  of  procedure  in  the  educating 
of  the  country  boy  and  girl,  that  will  give  them 
a  satisfactory  outlook  on  life,  and  make  them 
least  willing  to  give  up  their  place  in  the  country. 
Time  and  again  I  have  had  problems  similar 
to  the  one  that  your  patron  asks  of  you,  namely, 


Inquiries  and  Answers  237 

that  instead  of  giving  scientific  information 
about  eggs,  you  tell  him  how  to  make  his  hens 
lay  better  when  eggs  are  scarce.  It  is  very 
easy  to  ask  how  to  make  hens  lay  in  October 
and  November;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to 
answer  the  question.  Such  a  question  cannot 
be  answered  out  of  hand.  A  man  must  first 
learn  something  about  breeding,  and  feeding, 
and  care,  and  other  things.  In  other  words,  a 
man  must  have  enough  fundamental  knowledge 
to  know  the  reasons  why,  and  this  knowledge 
is  necessarily  scientific.  It  is  utterly  impossible 
to  try  to  answer  the  greater  part  of  our  agri- 
cultural questions  until  the  questioner  has  some 
really  underlying  understanding  of  the  condi- 
tions, and  processes,  and  principles  involved. 
The  lack  of  this  understanding  is  one  reason 
why  farmers  are  so  backward  in  utilizing 
advice,  and  also  why  they  are  unable  to  use  the 
experiment  station  bulletins. 

But  even  if  you  could  tell  your  patron  how 
to  make  hens  lay  in  October,  that  would  not 
settle  or  simplify  your  teaching.  You  must 
lead  your  pupils  to  go  beyond  an  isolated  fact 


238  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

and  relate  it  to  other  facts.  You  must  give 
them  some  conception  of  the  hen's  habit  of  life. 
You  must  not  allow  your  advice  to  farmers  to 
take  the  place  of  the  training  of  farmers' 
children. 

I  do  not  doubt  but  that  all  elementary  educa- 
tional work  for  country  conditions  is  yet  very 
crude  and  fails  adequately  to  reach  the  mark. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  am  convinced  that  we  are 
learning  how.  In  the  meantime  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  your  part  as  a  teacher  to  endeavor 
to  put  the  country  children,  as  much  as  possible, 
directly  into  touch  with  their  environment  in 
order  that  they  may  understand  it  and  apre- 
ciate  it.  I  am  quite  sure  that  not  all  the  com- 
pensations of  farming  are  in  the  shining  dollars 
of  which  you  speak.  Some  of  the  compensa- 
tion comes  in  a  sympathetic  appreciation  of  the 
surroundings  and  the  advantages  that  a  farmer 
has  and  may  have ;  and  the  countryman  cannot 
be  really  successful  until  he  arrives  at  this 
appreciation.  Of  course,  he  must  first  of  all 
have  the  money,  for  this  enables  him  to  live; 
but  there  are  other  rewards  in  life.  If  the 


The  Nature-Study  Idea  239 

farmers  do  not  appreciate  all  this,  you  must  do 
your  work  just  the  same,  and  wait. 

You  certainly  are  not  alone  in  feeling  that 
you  cannot  carry  the  children  much  beyond  the 
printed  lesson.  As  you  say,  these  subjects  are 
so  new  that  there  has  been  no  opportunity  for 
adequate  training  in  them.  I  think  that  the 
best  teacher  I  ever  had  along  these  lines  was  a 
woman  who  knew  very  little  about  the  subject- 
matter  itself,  but  who  encouraged  me,  answered 
my  questions  as  best  she  could,  and  told  me 
frankly  when  I  had  found  out  more  than  she 
knew.  I  judge,  however,  that  you  quite  under- 
estimate your  own  knowledge,  else  you  would 
not  feel  so  keenly  the  responsibility  of  your 
work. 

You  can  do  a  great  deal  outside  the  school 
for  your  people.  You  can  work  through 
farmers'  organizations,  attend  farmers'  insti- 
tutes, help  to  organize  boys'  and  girls'  clubs, 
reading  clubs,  help  to  put  educational  work  in 
the  fairs,  and  in  many  other  ways  quicken  the 
rural  life  of  your  vicinity. 


240          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

How  can  a  teacher  prepare  himself  to  teach 
agriculture  in  the  special  schools  that  are  now 
being  established? 

Beyond  pleasing  personality  and  moral  char- 
acter, there  are  two  powers  that  qualify  a  per- 
son to  teach :  ( i )  the  teaching  ability,  which  is 
in  part  a  natural  quality  and  in  part  gained  by 
experience;  (2)  knowledge  of  the  subject- 
matter. 

The  subject-matter  can  be  acquired  partly  by 
attendance  at  summer  schools  and  by  home 
reading,  but  if  you  are  intending  to  fit  yourself 
for  the  best  positions  you  will  need  to  attend  a 
good  college  of  agriculture.  Even  though  you 
are  farm  bred  and  know  the  practical  business 
of  farming,  you  will  need  the  college  training 
to  give  you  a  rational  grasp  of  the  field  and  to 
enable  you  to  put  your  abilities  into  teaching 
form.  For  these  best  positions,  you  must  take 
nothing  less  than  a  full  four-year  course,  for 
you  will  have  to  compete  with  the  regular 
graduates  of  these  institutions;  and  four  years' 
training  is  little  enough  to  fit  you  in  the  fun- 
damental sciences  and  arts,  and  to  prepare  you 


Inquiries  and  Answers  241 

in  the  modern  agricultural  subject-matter.  For 
those  who  cannot  take  full  training,  the  colleges 
of  agriculture  offer  short  and  special  courses. 

[I  have  given  a  full  outline  statement  of 
these  questions  in  Bulletin  No.  i,  1908,  of  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  under  the 
title,  "On  the  training  of  persons  to  teach  agri- 
culture in  the  public  schools."] 

How  can  I  do  any  nature-study  work  in  the 
ordinary  kind  of  schoolroom? 

School  buildings  are  constructed  for  the  work 
that  is  known  and  recognized  at  the  time  of 
their  erection;  so  it  follows  that  they  may  be 
very  poorly  adapted  to  nature-work.  If  your 
room  or  building  is  poorly  adapted,  you  will  be 
obliged  to  shift  as  best  you  can,  making  the 
most  of  unsatisfactory  conditions.  You  should 
not  give  up  the  work  for  that  reason.  You 
may  have  room  at  one  side  or  end  for  a  table 
on  which  you  can  place  a  terrarium  and 
aquarium  and  other  things.  You  may  have  a 
window  or  two  in  which  it  will  be  possible  and 
16 


242  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

advisable  to  grow  plants.  In  some  cases,  the 
children  can  germinate  a  few  plants,  or  even 
raise  them  to  maturity,  on  their  desks.  You 
may  have  a  yard  in  which  a  little  can  be  done 
in  gardening.  If  you  have  none  of  these  pos- 
sibilities, then  you  can  encourage  the  pupils  to 
grow  plants  and  to  make  their  observations  at 
home  (which  they  should  do  anyway)  and 
report  the  results  in  school.  You  can  have 
them  bring  in  such  specimens  as  do  not  require 
to  be  kept,  and  then  "clean  house"  frequently. 
In  the  planning  of  new  school  buildings, 
ample  provision  should  be  made  for  nature- 
work.  The  need  of  this  is  particularly  appar- 
ent in  the  country  schoolhouses.  In  rural 
districts,  we  must  have  a  new  kind  of  school- 
house.  A  room  or  wing  should  be  added  for 
work  with  tools  and  with  nature  objects;  or  a 
basement  may  be  provided ;  or,  in  many  district 
schools  in  which  the  number  of  children  has 
decreased,  one  end  of  the  old  schoolroom  may 
be  partitioned  off  for  this  purpose;  or  some  good 
outbuilding  may  be  requisitioned.  The  school 
premises  of  the  new  order  must  be  provided 


Inquiries  and  Answers  243 

with  good  grounds,  and  these  grounds  should 
grow  many  or  most  of  the  native  trees  and 
shrubs  of  the  neighborhood,  becoming  a  little 
local  park  and  a  beauty  spot. 

We  have  talked  much  about  new  teachers, 
but  we  need  schoolhouses  about  as  much  as  we 
need  new  teachers.  I  suppose  they  will  come 
together.  There  is  no  use  of  evading  the  ques- 
tion of  better  equipment.  We  must  put  more 
money  into  our  schools  if  we  expect  to  make 
them  better.  Schools  are  worth  about  what 
they  cost.  We  must  not  only  have  new  pieces 
of  equipment,  but  a  wholly  new  idea  of  equip- 
ment. We  are  to  go  back  to  the  beginning 
and  do  it  all  over  again  and  begin  naturally 
and  practically.  Different  kinds  of  things  must 
be  put  into  schoolhouses  from  those  that  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  put  there  (pp.  226- 
235)-  We  must  put  in  them  products  and 
implements,  and  make  them  express  the  life  and 
enterprises  of  the  neighborhood.  We  must  im- 
prove not  only  the  school  and  premises  but  we 
need  equally  to  interest  the  whole  district  or 
constituency  in  the  better  things. 


244          The  Nature-Study  Idea 

It  is  not  the  teacher  alone  or  the  schoolhouse 
alone  that  we  need  to  improve.  We  have  talked 
about  the  little  red  schoolhouse;  but  the  little 
red  schoolhouse  (as  one  of  my  farmer  friends 
puts  it)  is  likely  to  contain  the  little  green 
teacher. 

Is  nature-study  on  the  wane? 

Real  nature-study  cannot  pass  away.  But 
the  more  closely  we  come  into  touch  with  nature 
the  less  do  we  publish  the  fact  abroad.  We 
may  hear  less  about  it,  but  it  will  be  because  we 
are  living  nearer  to  it  and  have  ceased  to  feel 
the  necessity  of  advertising  it. 

Teaching  may  not  be  nature-study  merely 
because  it  is  so  called.  A  superintendent  told 
me  that  he  had  forbidden  nature-study  in  his 
schools.  I  asked  him  what  the  work  had  been. 
He  said  that  it  was  the  dissecting  of  cats.  A 
publisher  told  me  that  nature-study  is  passing 
out.  I  asked  why  he  thought  so.  He  replied 
that  his  nature-study  books  were  not  selling  as 
well  as  they  did.  I  told  him  that  I  was  glad. 

Much    that    is    called    nature-study    is    only 


Inquiries  and  Answers  245 

diluted  and  sugar-coated  science.  This  will 
pass.  Some  of  it  is  mere  sentimentalism. 
This  also  will  pass.  With  the  changes,  the 
term  nature-study  may  fall  into  disuse;  but  the 
name  matters  little  so  long  as  we  hold  to  the 
essence. 

All  new  things  must  be  unduly  emphasized, 
else  they  cannot  gain  a  foothold  in  competition 
with  matters  that  are  established.  For  a  day, 
some  new  movement  is  announced  in  the  daily 
papers,  and  then,  because  we  do  not  see  the 
headlines,  we  think  that  the  movement  is  dead; 
but  usually  when  things  are  heralded  they  have 
only  just  appeared.  So  long  as  the  sun  shines 
and  the  fields  are  green  we  shall  need  to  go  to 
nature  for  our  inspiration  and  our  release;  and 
our  need  is  the  greater  with  every  increasing 
complexity  of  our  lives. 

Would  you  advise  me  to  take  up  nature-study 
teaching? 

Yes,  if  you  feel  the  "call"  to  it;  otherwise, 
no.  I  would  have  only  those  teachers  teach 
nature-study  who  are  well  qualified  for  it,  as  I 


246  The  Nature-Study  Idea 

would  advise  for  grammar  or  other  school  work. 
Every  teacher  ought  to  have  the  nature-study 
outlook  to  keep  him  young  and  interested  in 
life,  but  we  all  recognize  that  relatively  few 
of  them  have  it.  Every  pupil  should  have 
nature-study,  under  one  name  or  another;  but 
he  should  receive  his  inspiration  from  the 
teacher  who  himself  is  so  full  of  the  subject 
that  he  teaches  with  spirit  and  with  cheerfulness. 
After  a  time,  we  shall  not  need  to  argue  for 
nature-study.  Teaching  must  in  the  end  be 
natural. 


RURAL  SCIENCE  SERIES 

Edited  by  L,  H.  Bailey 


On  Selection  of  Land,  etc. 

Isaac  P.  Roberts'  The  Farmstead $i  50 

On  Tillage,  etc. 

F.  H.  King's  The  Soil i  50 

Isaac  P.  Roberts'  The  Fertility  of  the  Land i  50 

F.  H.  King's  Irrigation  and  Drainage i  50 

Edward  B.  Voorhees'  Fertilizers i  25 

Edward  B.  Voorhees'  Forage  Crops i  50 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Principles  of  Agriculture i  25 

On  Plant  Diseases,  etc. 

E.  C.  Lodeman's  The  Spraying  of  Plants i  25 

On  Garden-Making 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Garden  Making  I  50 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Vegetable-Gardening I  50 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Forcing  Book i  25 

On  Fruit-Growing,  etc. 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Nursery  Book I  50 

L.  H.  Bailey's  Fruit-Growing I  50 

L.  H .  Bailey's  The  Pruning-Book i  50 

F.  W.  Card's  Bush  Fruits. ; I  50 

On  the  Care  of  Live-stock 

Nelson  S.  Mayo's  The  Diseases  of  Animals i  50 

•     W.  H.  Jordan's  The  Feeding  of  Animals 150 

I.  P.  Roberts' The  Horse 125 

George  C.  Watson's  Farm  Poultry I  25 

On  Dairy  Work,  Farm  Chemistry,  etc. 

Henry  H.  Wing's  Milk  and  Its  Products I  50 

J.  G.  Lipman's  Bacteria  and  Country  Life I  50 

On  Economics  and  Organization 

I.  P.  Roberts'  The  Farmer's  Business  Handbook  .  i  25 

George  T.  Fairchild's  Rural  Wealth  and  Welfare. .  i  25 

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are  here  insisted  upon.  Simple  experiments  are  described 
or  suggested  and  the  pupil  is  frequently  reminded  of  the 
verifications  that  he  himself  can  make.  The  illustrations, 
which  are  extensive,  have  been  chosen  for  their  educational 
value. 

THE  GREAT  WORLD'S  FARM 

By  Selina  Gaye.    Cloth,  Illustrated,  12mo,  $1.00  net 
A  readable  account  of  plants  and  how  they  live  and  grow. 
The  volume  is  well  adapted  to  young  people,  being  as  free 
as  possible  from  technicalities. 

SHORT  STUDIES  IN  NATURE  KNOWLEDGE 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  SCIENCE  OF  PHYSIOGRAPHY 

By  William  Gee.  Cloth,  Illustrated,  12mo,  $1.10  net 
A  Brief  Synopsis:  The  Great  Globe  Itself  —  Mountains, 
Valleys  and  Great  Plains — Scenery  and  Its  Causes— The  Sea 
— Rivers  and  Their  Work — Lakes  and  Their  Lessons— Wells 
and  Springs  — The  Air  — The  Winds  of  Heaven —  Frost — 
Fires — Showers  and  Dew. 

FRIENDSHIP  OF  NATURE 

By  Mabel  Osgood  Wrigkt.  Cloth,  Illustrated,  12mo,  $.75  net 
"A  dainty  little  volume,  exhaling  the  perfumes  and  radi- 
ating the  hues  of  both  cultivated  and  wild  flowers,  echoing 
the  songs  of  birds,  and  illustrated  with  exquisite  pen  pictures 
of  bits  of  garden,  field,  and  woodland  scenery.  The  author 
is  an  intimate  of  nature.  She  relishes  its  beauties  with  the 
keenest  delight  and  describes  them  with  a  musical  flow  of 
language  that  carries  us  along  from  a  'May  Day'  to  a  'Win- 
ter Mood'  in  a  thoroughly  sustained  effort."  —  Richmond 
Dispatch. 

INTERPRETATION  OF  NATURE 

By  C.  Lloyd  Morgan.  Cloth,  16mo,  $.65  net 
Mr.  Morgan  here  contrasts  the  two  ways  of  interpreting 
nature,  the  one  which  explains  the  world  in  terms  of  pur- 
pose analogous  to  the  purposes  of  man,  and  the  other  which 
works  inward  from  external  mechanism  to  the  human  brain. 
He  shows  that  these  two  interpretations  are  really  supple- 
ments of  each  other. 

Published  by 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN     INITIAL     FINE     OF    25     CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THf'S  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 


DAY  AND 
OVERDUE. 


TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 


MAR  15  1933  ' 


10    Jas3 
16  1934 


R  IV  ij)3i> 


M       3    1 


JUN    101938 
DEC 


BECCIR 


5 


MAY  ^  7  2007 


LD  21-50m-l,'3S 


TB  UDUI4 


U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


60044 


